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NewsletterIssue 36

GCSE Results 2021As many of us are aware, due to the impact of COVID -19, our 2021 school leavers did not have the opportunity to sit their GCSE exams. Instead, students were awarded their GCSE grades by their class teachers, based upon a range of assessments completed mainly throughout late spring and early summer term. We know that for many, despite being denied their opportunity to physically sit the exam papers, their hard work throughout their GCSEs (and the foundations of study that they built in earlier years) led to a satisfying result and one that they felt they deserved. Obviously, for the majority of students, results day collection was still met with nervous excitement; as the envelopes were opened and grades they were issued revealed. A huge amount of planning and effort went into the studies of our students, both from students and our staff, and we want to thank them all for this dedication.Although it would be lovely to host a Senior Presentation Awards ceremony as we normally would at this time of year, we believe that a large gathering of this nature may not yet be appropriate. We still want to ensure that recognition is made to those students who completed their secondary education at Westhoughton High School, those that completed their time with 100% attendance and those that have been recognised by each department for their outstanding progress made. We are therefore creating a Virtual Senior Presentation Awards celebration, in a similar style to last year, recognising the efforts and hard work that many of your young people have shown. Further details about the celebration will be communicated via our school website and social media pages. Whilst recognising the hard work and commitment of all our students, the school would also like to give a special mention to our highest achiever this year; Antoni Borzymowski, achieving seven grade 9s (the highest grade possible for a GCSE) and a grade 8, a fabulous set of results. This was honored by the Rotary club by awarding Antoni with ‘The Tony Budd Bursary Award’. We are sure you will join the school in congratulating Antoni on his amazing achievement and along with the school wish all of our leavers a successful journey onwards.

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Our Facebook PageVisit our Facebook page at @WesthoughtonHS to keep up to date with all school news, events,

awards and any important information you may need.

Welcome to Mr CoeI knew that Westhoughton High School was the right school for me as soon as I walked through the doors. The sense of community in school is overwhelming as is the pride that students and staff take in their school. This is a school that is justifiably proud of the relationships between staff and students, which for me is the very bedrock of a successful learning environment. In recent weeks I have had the privilege of listening to students, staff and Governors as they share their views on the school and how we can make it even better. I am keen to hear from parents of students at the school so I have scheduled a Parent Forum meeting on October 14th 5-6pm which will take place in person at school. This will be a chance for me to outline my vision for the school and to take questions from parents who attend. This will be a general forum where parents can learn more about me and the school.

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Year 8 KindnessLibby D & Mum have worked tirelessly to collate a number of products for our female students with the sole aim of ending period poverty. Through the power of social media Libby has received hundreds and hundreds of donations from far and wide to help her with her mission of ending period poverty. Both Libby and Mum have put together lots of care packages for our female students - These will be donated to everybody and anybody who needs them!! It’s such a selfless act that will go a long way to help our female population! Well done and thank you Libby!!

Year 7 Pizza & Packaging CompetitionStateside Foods asked if our year 7 students would like to participate in a pizza and packaging design competition, so in conjunction with our design technology department, theme park project in food students were set the task. We had 41 entrants who produced some fantastic designs. Results were carefully judged by Heather Middlehurst from Stateside Foods. Congratulations to the following students who produced fantastic designs and produced a pizza to match them as well: 1st - Charlotte S (7H) - £30 Amazon gift voucher 2nd - Ryan W (7F) -£20 Amazon gift voucher 3rd - Harriet L (7W) - £10 Amazon gift voucher Heather was so impressed with the high standard of entrants and fantastic array of designs she has awarded Highly Commended certificates to the following students who provided both excellent pizza and packaging designs: 7M: Rosin W & Georgia C7V: Alexandra W & Maryam Z7H: Georgia V, Inaaya H, Jayden N & Thomas C-G7W: Jasmine D, Jayden H, Kristian G & Lucas M 7B: Sophie P & Jamie W 7P: Joshua D & Summer H & Mia L Thank you to all students for your brilliant work. Mr Whittle

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Summer Kindness AppealHere at Westhoughton High School; students, parents, and staff have taken part in our Summer Kindness Appeal. The aim of this appeal was to spread kindness through positive action. Our Community Champion Group decided on the logo, the charities, and the ways in which we would raise money. A group of our Community Champions participated in a pitch to Bolton CVS during May half term and this pitch was successful thanks to the hard work and dedication of three of our current year 10 students. This means that we can start creating plans for the renovation of our memorial garden and use the grant to create a space of reflection and remembrance this academic year. The charities that we worked with this summer are Backup Northwest, Urban Outreach, Westhoughton Assist Service, Bolton Hospice, and Woodlands Care Home. We are privileged to work with these amazing charities and organisations that assist our local area and support those families that need it most during these uncertain times. The students enjoyed meeting with these charities and helping to organise these fundraisers across school. We managed to provide; a full grub tub to Urban Outreach, essential products and £160 for Backup Northwest, £430 for Bolton Hospice, care packages for Woodlands Care Home, and food items for Westhoughton Assist Service. We would like to thank everyone who donated to any of the charities that we have worked with and thank the charities for their letters, cards, and kind words on social media. Another appeal that we ran during the Summer Kindness Appeal is Champion the Period Revolution. Six members of our Community Champions group lobbied our senior leadership team for change to how we provide and distribute sanitary products around school and during school holidays. They also wish to challenge the stigma around period poverty. The aim of this is to reduce the impact of period poverty in our school community. We intend to have free sanitary products available to all pupils who need it by the end of October. Students also got together to write personal letters of thanks to all staff that work at our school, promoting even more kindness within our school community. This was a lovely gesture from our amazing pupils and gave our staff memories that they will never forget. We look forward to running our Let’s Share Christmas appeal later in the year.

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Digital Detox dayWe held a Digital Detox Day during lockdown promoting to students to be offline for the day and doing different activies, eith outside, being creative making things or cooking. See a selection of the response we had for all year groups!

New Build Offical OpeningWe were delighted that Bernie Brown, Bolton LA Director of People was able to join us last week to formally open our new building. Following a tour of the building, Form Representatives from year 8 chatted about their experiences of lockdown learning and lessons in the new building. During the ceremony, an oak tree was planted, alongside a time capsule of student post-pandemic hopes and aspirations. These were donated to the school by Manchester Airport to commemorate their 80th anniversary.

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Westhoughton IDIn January 2021, we launched Team Westhoughton ID aimed at creating a school in which inclusion and diversity is embraced and embedded in all aspects of our curriculum offer and LEARN ethos.We want our students to become well-rounded, open-minded individuals with a secure awareness and understanding of their own identity and a deep appreciation and respect for others. Our LEARN ethos underpins all that we do and through our inclusive practice we want to pledge accessible opportunities for all, ensuring that everyone is valued and accepted for their individual attributes and that there is equity and equality in recognition and reward; creating a genuine sense of belonging, where NO individual is missed.The Equality Act 2010 and the nine protected characteristics has formed the platform from which we will develop our inclusive practice, working with all stakeholders, staff and a student ID working group will be instrumental in our intent to wipe out discrimination and prejudice in our school. We aim to raise awareness and foster recognition and acceptance of everyone in our school, creating an inclusive-rich community which encapsulates our diversity.A big thank you to all our families and stakeholders, with your help, we have created a world map identifying where ALL our families originate from to represent our diverse school population.

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Local and National newsWe made it into the Local and National newspapers during the second Covid lockdown, for our stationary bus that distributed exercise books, paper, pens etc to any student who needed them druing that period working from home. Great work #Team WHS

Children’s Mental Health WeekWe supported children’s mental health week the best we could while the students werent in school. We sent packs out to every student and staff. The packs had a few key items to highlight the importance mental health, 5 ways to wellbeing as well as signposting support for mental, physical and digital wellbeing #TeamWHS

Comic ReliefWe held a non-uniform on Friday 19th March to raise money for Comic Relief, we raised a total of £806 for Comic Relief via ParentPay. Thank you to all the donations for this worthy charity.

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Hole in one!Jacob R from Year 8 celebrated the return of the #GolfSixesLeague fixtures by holing out for a dramatic hole-in-one ACE at his home club of Hart Common Golf Club, it hosted the Lancs League event in fantastic style. A great strike Jacob! Watching parents were on the second tee to see his shot fly to the green and disappear into the hole, applauding and cheering the brilliant shot: after which Jacob was all smiles for the rest of the match! Well done Jacob!

Royal Mail Design CompetitionStudents were given the opportunity to participate in the Royal Mail Design competition. We had over 100 entries from students, these have all now been sent off. We picked a selection of our favourite designs for you to see. Good luck to everyone who entered.

Bolton Lads & Girls ClubThank you to all who were able to donate to our Blue and Yellow non-uniform day last week. We raised £573.70 for Bolton Lads & Girls Club!

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Our Eco Memorial Garden at Westhoughton High SchoolHere at Westhoughton High School, we are creating a sustainable, environmentally

Look after each other • Enjoy our school • Aim highRespect one another, ourselves & our schoolNever stop learning

friendly garden that will be dedicated to people in our local community who have lost their lives. This memorial garden will be at the heart of our school where it can be seen by all students, staff, and visitors to site. We will only use sustainable products, create feeding areas, make bug hotels, and plant flowers that will encourage local wildlife to make this area their home. We will also be planting a fruit tree that will grow as our community grows with it. This will symbolise new life as we flourish, flower, and bear fruit as a community. This project will be a stepping-stone into further environmental strategies that our school will adopt. Going forward, we want to champion our environment here at Westhoughton High School and in the local area. Three Students in year 9 (pictured below) have been involved in creating and delivering a pitch that was delivered to Bolton CVS during May half term. This pitch was successful thanks to the hard work and dedication of Ramez, Alisha and Madison. We can now start creating plans for our garden and now use the grant to create a space of reflection and rememberance. Year 7 will be focussed on the garden for the first few weeks on the Summer Kindness Appeal. We will continue to keep you informed on the progression of the garden.

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International Womens Day 2021To celebrate “International Womens Day 2021” in March this year, students across key stage 3 mathematics undertook a project commemorating the life and work of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. Students learnt about different numbers systems from various civilisations and about Grace’s early life, being born during a time of technological innovation, through to the contributions to science she made over her long service in the US Navy (retiring at the age of 79!). Often referred to as the “Grandmother of code”, to celebrate Grace’s life students designed their own image using the binary number system often used in computing. There were many excellent designs, demonstrating both the students’ superb understanding of binary code and their creativity. Some of these designs will be being displayed around the school, as tiled mosaics during the summer months, and these students were awarded with prizes for their outstanding designs.

Welcome to Westhoughton Business HubLocated in Westhoughton, the Business Hub aims to assist local businesses with the challenges that they face, by providing high quality, low cost meeting space. The hub offers practical services to help businesses grow,

reduce overheads and thrive for years to come.

With our geographical location close to North West motorway links and the proximity to Logistics North adjacent to junction 4 of the M61 the Hub gives easy access into Greater Manchester,

Lancashire and Cheshire.

For more information, please contact us on 01942 850082, email us at enquiries@westhoughtonbusinesshub.org

You can also keep in touch with us on the following social media platforms:

@Wbusinesshub Westhoughton Business Hub W: westhoughtonhub.communitybookings.co.uk E: enquiries@westhoughtonbusinesshub.org

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Year 7 Food Art ChallengeA big thank you to all year 7 students who have participated in the food art challenge. We were really proud of all the entrants received and outstanding designs provided, well done. With so many brilliant designs awards were given for joint 1st, 2nd and 3rd position.Thank you to parents and carers who have purchased ingredients and encouraged students to create such wonderful and imaginative designs. Check out all the designs see if you can spot your finished designs.

Macmillan cake saleA big thank you to all students and staff who purchased cakes on Friday 24th Septmeber and made donations through ParentPay, we raised £546.35 a fantastic amount for a very worthwhile chairty. Thank you to all who took part.

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SUMMER SCHOOL 2021

An important part of transition at Westhoughton High School is the Summer School provision

we provide throughout the summer holidays. This year the provision ran from the 23rd- 27th

August. Pupils were invited from primary schools across Bolton to take part in this fantastic,

fun filled week of activities. Teaching staff and support staff led a variety of sessions each day

focussed around parts of our teaching curriculum, as well as a focus on the development of

key skills such as teamwork, leadership and collaboration.

The winning boats were the ones that carried the biggest mass without sinking. All pupils took part enthusiastically and some even made two or three boats! The second was a basic acids and alkali lesson. I introduced the idea that acids and alkalis are everywhere in daily life, and that we use indicators to tell where a substance sits on the pH scale. They loved doing some ‘real science’ although some were slightly disappointed that nothing blew up…

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Physical Education

During summer school I ran a teambuilding task which involved students working together to get from one safe space to another using only a set of spot markers. Students were not allowed to touch the floor. This used a guided discovery approach and allowed individual leaders to flourish in the groups. Following this, students worked in pairs to complete an orienteering course with the intention of introducing and familiarising themselves with the school. The students loved this task, had fun and worked

incredibly well within teams.

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Our WebpageVisit our website www.westhoughton-high.org to keep up to date! Find useful information, news, forthcoming events, term dates and much more.

Westhoughton High School. Bolton Road, Westhoughton, Bolton. BL5 3DNTel: 01942 814122 l Fax: 01942 817792 Email: WHSOffice@westhoughton-high.org

Follow us on Facebook @WesthoughtonHS or Twitter @WesthoughtonHS