Henbury School News

We are happy to introduce the new column from Henbury Secondary School with all the new and what's on.

Life at school is always busy, and this year is no exception. As well as focusing on ensuring all stu- dents achieve their very best, the school offers a wide range of extra- curricular activities to broaden students‘ interests and horizons.

Reintroducing a house system

This year the school returned to a system that hasn‘t been used for a number of years. All students and staff are allocated to one of five houses, and competition between them is fierce! Our houses are named after star constellations, to inspire students to look up to the stars! The names are Aquila (the eagle), Delphinus (the dolphin), Draco (the dragon), Pegasus (the winged horse) and Phoenix (the firebird). So far the advantages of having a house system are proving very positive. Students are able to take on different responsibilities in each house, and each house will take part in charity and sporting events and competitions. Most of all we value the way that all students in a house, of whatever age, mix and work positively together, helping younger students to settle in at school with confidence, and encouraging responsibility and leadership in older students.

Arts at Henbury

Many readers will know that Henbury is a Specialist Arts College, achieving outstanding results for students. We also have a full and exciting programme of activities for local primary schools and residents in Henbury and Brentry. The Community Art Group meets every Monday in school at 4pm. We are also happy to develop other activities in response to residents' requests. Because of the extremely high quality of the work done in school, we were proud this year that the Art team received the National Teaching Award for 'Outstanding Team of the Year' in South West England. If you are interested in finding out any more details about opportunities in Art, please contact John Bennett on 0117 903 0181.

Trips and Visits

This term has been very busy for trips and visits, both at home and abroad. 13 students were accompanied by staff to New York for a week to explore the arts and culture. 18 went to Disneyland Paris for a study break, looking at Business. Two of our students are travelling to Uganda with a member of staff in February, where we have an exchange secondary school with whom we work closely. The two students, Maaya Pandit and Samantha Robertson, have worked hard to raise funds for the trip. We will let you know how they get on in the next edition!

Henbury Streetz Project

Earlier this year a Street Dance group was formed for young people, based at the Emmanuel Chapel in Satchfield Crescent. Membership is not confined only to members of the church or even youngsters living close by – anyone from year 11 to 14 is welcome. The group was initially called the Henbury Youth Project and there was enough money to fund lessons from professional dancers for a short time.

Jane Leslie, the World Aquathlon and European Triathlon Age Group Champion and mother of Charlotte Leslie, our MP, took an interest in the group and pledged to raise £2,000 for them by cycling 50 miles around Bristol on the day of our Fun Day event. Jane set off in the rain at 8am with her training companion and arrived back triumphantly at 3pm to cheers and applause from the crowds gathered on Barnard Park. Her ride raised the fantastic sum of £2,300 from sponsors and collections along the route.

The group was also successful in their bid for funding from the BS10 Big It Up! Project’s resources and received £4,000.

Having access to this money will enable its members to branch out and include other activities for young people. There are already plans for Beat Box and ‘MC’ing sessions, which have been especially requested by boys – though none of the different activities will exclude anyone.

Although the group is now financially better off there will always be the ongoing need for further funding to enable the activities to continue. Bristol Rover FC is holding a Festival of Community Activities prior to and during the home match on 16^th October, starting at 12noon. On this occasion the Club has very kindly offered to have a bucket collection for the Henbury group. The entire group of collectors – adults and children – have been invited to the match as guests of the Club. The young people have also been invited to perform at a home match next year.

This venture is entirely a community activity and not affiliated in any way to Council or youth services. As such we should applaud and support them in every way. They are giving the youngsters of our community activities which they specifically want and in so doing hopefully are providing them with a sensible and confidence building structure to help guide them into their future.

Summer feedback - A message from the young ones

“This summer was really busy, there was well loads going on, young people got involved in various activities that gave us kids the chance to experience different things and learn new skills.

Young people went away on day trips, residential weekends as well as helping in the community events. The activities gave young people something to do, a chance to do something positive for our community, and gave the more challenging kids the chance to see how to behave whilst they were on trips.

Our greatest achievement was climbing Snowdon organised by PC Nick Merrick. Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales and England. We also spent three days fishing, not every one’s cup of tea but we really enjoyed it.

The Youth Forum spent a day working with Matt Dowse at Kingsweston House, looking at all the “Big Idea” bids for HBCC & Inspiring Communities. This was not as much fun but it had to be done! And we were rewarded for our work.

We would like to thank loads of people, the Community Council and all the other funders for giving youth groups money that was used to pay for the trips. And thanks to all the residents, staff, volunteers, and groups that helped to run holiday activities.

Our next big project is to organise a Talent Show, hopefully for the February school holidays next year. We believe that everyone has a talent – even if they don’t know what it is yet. We are looking for individuals and groups to take part or help run the evening, so please contact us if you are interested. “

Kane Davies, Reece Wigston-Richards, Harry Alker - Henbury & Brentry Youth Forum Members.

If you would like more information about the Youth Forum you can contact us through Lisa Bailey on 0117 377 2614.

7 projects benefit from your Big Ideas!

In July, Henbury and Brentry Community Council asked for your ideas about how to spend £25,000 on projects that would engage and inspire young people aged 11-14 in our area.

57 ideas were submitted either through the website www.bs10youridea.com or were posted in the ideas box in Henbury Library. The ideas ranged from building a new swimming pool to litter picking teams to clean up the local area! We always knew that there would be too many ideas put forward to put to the public vote so we arranged a short listing process which involved young people from the youth forum and senior members of the Henbury and Brentry Community Council. The short listing took place at the end of July. To get shortlisted the idea had to:

Be realistic and practical

Support young people in our area to be inspired

Be exciting and engaging (young people were on the short listing panel)

Help young people to build self confidence, get involved and do well at school

Take place from September 2010 to March 2011

Provide value for money

After much discussion we came up with a list of 19 ideas that we thought should be put to the public vote. We grouped the ideas together in packages that added up to £12,500 each. This meant that we would be asking members of the community to vote for two packages so that we could spend the whole £25,000.

Voting opened during August and ran for two weeks. In total there were 443 votes cast, either through our website, through the ballot box in Henbury Library or during the public meeting that was held on Saturday 4^th September. Thanks to all of you who turned up to the meeting and to all of those people who made the voting such a success. We hope that everyone who wanted to vote was able to do so.

THE RESULTS The two winning projects were:

Get Modern – a project to provide funding to renovate and improve three youth venues in the area. Total grant £12,500 (£4166 for each venue).

To complete the final refurbishments to the Scout Hut Renovation, including hand rails for the access ramps, flooring, kitchen patio to the rear of the building, repainting the hall floor and providing new and improved kitchen equipment.

To fund the creation of a youth cafe at Emmanuel Chapel, providing furniture, paint and facilities for the youth group.

To provide equipment to the Youth Centre including a TV, new computers, gym equipment, a sofa and new kitchen equipment.

All of these projects will improve the facilities in the area and we hope that it will mean that more young people will take part in the activities that take place. All of the youth venues will be advertising their improvements in the next newsletter! The Get Modern idea received 33% of all votes cast and was the project with the most votes.

Get Creative – a project to provide creative opportunities for young people in the area.

- To fund a project to buy musical instruments and pay for tuition for as many young people as possible (£4,500).

- To provide funding for the Community Talent Show which will be put on by the Youth Forum in February next year (£2,500).

- To provide funding for the Henbury School Community Fun Day which will be run and organised by young people (£1,500)

- To pay for the street dance project and music project running at the Emmanuel Chapel for a year (£4,000)

These creative ideas will mean that a lot more young people can take part in inspiring and exciting projects. The Get Creative project received 28% of all votes cast and was the project with the second highest number of votes.

By the time the next HBCC newsletter goes to print many of these projects will have taken place or be about to happen. We look forward to sharing some exciting stories with you soon!

Henbury and Brentry Community Council

Volunteer needed

The Attainment Adviser Project in Henbury School, is looking for a local resident to join the team as a volunteer, until the end of March 2011. The role would involve spending up to 10hrs a week supporting some Year 7 students. Spending time with them one to one, attending some of their English and Maths lessons, and talking regularly with parents. No experience is necessary. If you are interested please contact Fran Hopcraft Tel: 07986 562824.

Community Transformer at Henbury School

Pupils from Henbury School have taken part in the Pilot Project for the Community Transformers Fund. The fund is a new scheme set up by The Safer Bristol Partnership and the Police Community Trust. Under the scheme young people can put forward bids for projects they have devised to benefit the community through their school or youth worker. There will be a special Oscar style award ceremony in October, with special awards for the most successful ideas and the young people who have contributed the most.

In Henbury pupils from the school identified a problem with graffiti in the entrance hall of the Laundry room at Henbury Court Flats. As part of their artwork in school the pupils designed murals to go on the walls. The residents were asked for their opinions on which designs they liked the most. They prepared the walls ready for the new murals, then worked under the supervision of an Urban Artist to paint the chosen designs onto the walls. The room has now been transformed, and the pupils have received very positive feedback about their mural. A big thank you to all the young people and staff from Henbury School for all their hard work and making this pilot project so successful.

Henbury Court Primary School is on the up!

"As Chair of Governors I would like to say that I am proud to be associated with Henbury Court Primary School and am delighted at the new building. I would like to pay tribute to everyone who works in the school for the way that they gave up much of their own time to deal with the various moves that had to take place and to ensure that, despite the building chaos over most of the year, the school managed to run smoothly. The whole school was in attendance at the Grand Opening and they sang 'Don't build your house on sand' brilliantly, complete with actions.

I often walk around the school and am impressed by the friendliness and confidence of the children: although academic results are clearly important and are always stressed, it is equally important for children to feel happy in school and to enjoy learning. I was recently in school during their 'creative curriculum' week when each class chose an 'Imaginary world' theme, such as aliens, underground and stick world. They decorated their classrooms appropriately and the curriculum for that week was largely based on that theme. It is events like this that make learning both fun and memorable. The school is a lively place to be in and there is always some event about to happen - this term there is a Dance Festival when the whole school will take part, an Easter Bonnet Parade and an Egg Decorating Competitition.

I would like to share with you just one other experience. Wanting to meet recently with Sue Anstey, the Head, I was told the only chance I had that week was to catch up with her at the Swimming Gala at Henbury Pool. There, our children did pretty well, but one other school struggled to find four children who could swim a length. One of our boys offered to swim for them and this he did. I thought this was so generous, but when I commented on it to his class teacher she said that was the sort of thing she would expect. I think that sums up why I am proud to be a governor at the school. It is definitely a school that is going forward.”

Daphne Kerslake, Chair of Governors
Henbury Court Primary School.

Summer Activities 2008

Henbury Area Holiday Activities (HA-HA) offered a wide range of things to do this Summer across Henbury and Brentry including day trips all over the South West, from catching 20lb common carp and 16lb conger eels and climbing the highest mountain in the UK.
The Big Idea Theatre School started the season, led by Debbie Stewart drama teacher at Henbury School. The week-long summer school was open to all to experience new things and make new friends. The week concluded with a show for parents and friends.
Perhaps the most challenging activity had to be The Henbury School Trust Ben Nevis Challenge 2008. Departing early Tuesday 12th August, twenty students from Henbury School set off to Fort William, Scotland to take part in five days of trips to local sites of interest, playing team games in the evening, fishing for crabs from Loch Linnhe as well as the serious business of climbing Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK. Ben Nevis claims climber's and walker's lives every year but with the expert knowledge of Chuck and Guy our guides from Ice Mountain we made it to the top. It was only one of a handful of days this year that the summit had a 360° clear view of the breathtaking countryside below.
Each student returned to the start, veteran of a monumental day, full of stories about the climb and all agreed that the experience would be hard to beat. Many thanks to all involved, to the participants and to the people who supported us through sponsorship.
We are in the process of planning next year’s challenge which will be revealed in December.
All too soon the summer came to an end, it’s back to school for another year.

News from Henbury School

Many residents will be aware that Henbury School was designated as a specialist Arts college from September 2007. You may not know, however, what that means!

Specialist schools are recognized as being centres of excellence in particular curriculum areas. The government then gives them additional resources to support the development of that subject within the school, in order to raise standards and to carry out work with the local community and neighbouring schools in order to provide them with new opportunities as well. Already, staff at Henbury have worked with a number of our local primary schools on art projects and music activities. A local community art group is coming into school each week to make the most of our resources here and we would like some more!

If you are part of a visual or performing arts group who would like to develop links with the school, please get in touch with either John Bennett (Art) or Alastair Stewart (Performing Arts) at the school, on Tel: 903 0100. We are keen to use the schoolís status to benefit the whole community.

Clare Bradford - Headteacher