Harrogate Grammar School Archives - Page 8 of 9

Record number of Oxbridge offers at Harrogate Grammar School

Harrogate Grammar School is celebrating a record nine offers from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to its sixth form students.

It is the highest number of Oxbridge offers in the school’s recent history and follows considerable disruption to schools caused by covid.

Headteacher Neil Renton said:

“We are incredibly proud of our students in securing offers at such world leading educational institutions.

“In the context of such difficult circumstances, students have shown resilience, independence and determination.”

“Much of their preparation and support took place remotely and this created different opportunities to support students in their application.”

The students participated in the school’s sixth form scholars’ programme, which helps to develop confidence, curiosity and independent thought to help succeed at top universities.

The programme includes presentations by academics, discussion groups, interview workshops, mock interview sessions and support for aptitude tests.

Among those receiving offers are year 13 students Ruby Johnson and Lucy Bowman.

Lucy, who has an offer to study natural sciences at the Cambridge University, said:

“I can’t wait to start the next chapter of my life there. It has made all my hard work worth it and I finally have something special to look forward to at the end of these strange times.”

Ruby, who has received an offer to study philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, said:

“I am very grateful to the school for the support they provided throughout the application process.”

The nine students that received offers from Oxbridge were for the following courses and colleges: mathematics at Downing College, Cambridge; natural sciences at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge; philosophy, politics and economics at St Peter’s College, Oxford; music at Keble College, Oxford; linguistics at Downing College, Cambridge; engineering at Emmanuel College, Cambridge; engineering at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge; psychology and behavioural sciences at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and geography at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

Pupils ready for return to classrooms across Harrogate district

Pupils across the Harrogate district will be returning to classrooms this week after online learning since the start of term.

While teachers have remained on site to support children of key workers and provide virtual lessons, for many families it is the first time children have been in school since before Christmas.

As well as readjusting to classroom life, including wearing masks, secondary school students will be expected to begin a covid testing regime as the government aims to reduce the number of cases in schools. However, schools are keen to make the return to classroom teaching as normal and positive as possible.

For Harrogate Grammar School, one of the key aims over the remaining weeks of the school year is to ensure students do not become “the covid generation”. Headteacher Neil Renton said they had shown their resilience through all the challenges of the last 12 months:

“They have gone through so much in the last year, they have been used to adapting and changing. They have been at home, then brought back, then had periods of isolation – there have been lots of different scenarios.

“That’s why we should call them ‘generation remarkable’ because they’re more independent and they’re more resilient.”

Mr Renton said the government’s announcement about the way exam grades will be awarded this summer had given reassurance to students, and the school had organised online sessions to give more information about how teacher assessments will be completed.

With all the grammar school’s students having access to an iPad for home learning, and now being back in the classroom, he said teachers had had regular contact throughout the year to inform their assessments. However, any further lockdown before the summer could pose new challenges.

“Year 11 and year 13 have got three weeks when they get back, then seven weeks after Easter, and in that time we have got to do some assessments so we can come up with teacher-assessed grades.

“If we have to close again, it means doing assessments remotely and that’s much more difficult to achieve. It’s a critical period for schools.”

At Ripon Grammar School, students will return to in-person lessons from Thursday. Sixth form student Hannah Burfield said she and her fellow pupils were nervous but excited about returning to the classroom.

“Despite my positive attitude throughout this lockdown, I admit there have been moments when my motivation has wavered.

“To help cope with stress I made a promise to myself that I would go outside at least once every day, and I feel that this has really helped to keep me grounded and improved my mental health.”

She said many students have enjoyed the additional time with their families, as well as having enough time to complete extra projects or begin planning their university applications. However, they know a more normal routine has to return and hope to adjust quickly to life in school again.

Ripon Grammar School sixth form student Hannah Burfield

Hannah added:

“Despite my initial anxiety about returning back to school I recognise that it is time for things to finally move back to normality and I hope our routines won’t be disrupted by any more lockdowns.

“It will be challenging for all students to return to school and many will find it difficult to motivate themselves and may feel overwhelmed by their work at first. That’s why it is so important, now more than ever, to check in with your friends and to make sure you speak up if you ever need any help.”

It is not only the students preparing for an adjustment this week. Jonathan Webb, headmaster of Ripon Grammar School, said the return to classrooms is important for everyone in schools:

“One thing is clear – that there is no substitute for school when it comes to the social and emotional benefits we all get from interacting and learning together. This applies, I am sure, as much for staff as it does for students.

“We all miss being be able to read on our students’ faces those expressions of joy and confusion, enlightenment and frustration, grumpiness and happiness; in essence, all the things that make us human.”

At St Aidan’s High School in Harrogate, staff are also looking forward to seeing all pupils in school again. A spokesperson said:

“Over the past few months we have been delighted with the way that students have adapted to learning at home and over the last year have been hugely impressed by their resilience and ability to manage the challenges that have been put in front of them.

“We very much look forward to the corridors being filled with happiness and laughter once again and, crucially, face to face personal interactions becoming an integral part of students’ everyday lives again.”

Schools open for covid testing as classroom return looms

The first pupils across the Harrogate district have been receiving covid tests as schools prepare for a return to classroom-only teaching.

Harrogate Grammar, Harrogate High, St John Fisher and St Aidan’s schools in Harrogate, as well as Outwood Academy in Ripon, have all begun offering tests to their students this week.

Each will complete the first round of testing of all pupils by the middle of next week, after which the second and third rounds will be offered.

Harrogate Grammar School began its testing programme with its 600 sixth formers today, before working its way down the year groups in the first half of next week. Headteacher Neil Renton said:

“The testing today is going really well. We’ve got 10 testing bays in action and we’re testing 100 students every hour.

“We’re starting with year 12 and 13 students because our sixth form is so large – about 600 students. We wanted to make sure things were working, because if we didn’t get this right we would have to re-think our testing for next week.”

Fortunately, Mr Renton said, the trial had run smoothly, with a high percentage of parents giving consent for testing to take place. He praised the efforts of 30 members of staff who had been trained up to help students to follow the right procedures, led by business operations manager Tom Stephens.

Asked about the impact of testing on schools’ ability to keep students in classrooms, Mr Renton said:

“The way I’m seeing it is it’s an additional measure we didn’t have before. I know there’s a huge debate about the efficacy of testing, but it’s what we’ve been asked to do and if it finds and breaks transmission of a couple of asymptomatic cases, it has been worth doing.”

At St Aidan’s, years 7, 11 and 13 have been tested yesterday and today, before returning to in-person lessons on Monday. Years 10 and 12 will be tested on Monday, year 8 on Tuesday and year 9 on Wednesday, each then coming back to the classroom the following day.

Like most of the district’s schools, St Aidan’s is also repurposing existing facilities to accommodate a temporary testing centre. A spokesperson for the school said:

“The 16 bay testing facility is situated in Constance Green Hall, usually the home to assemblies, theatrical productions, proms and fantastic musical performances all year round.

“The in-school arrangements for the return of students will be similar to the measures we had in place in the autumn term, with year group bubbles, staggered lesson times, lunches, arrival and departure times, but with the addition of further control measures including the wearing of face coverings in lessons.”

To ease any anxiety about the testing process, both St Aidan’s and Harrogate Grammar School have created virtual tours of their facilities for students.

Ripon Grammar School’s sports hall set up ready for covid testing from Monday

Meanwhile, St John Fisher tested its year 11 and 13 pupils yesterday ready for them to return to school on Monday, when years 10 and 12 will be tested, followed by lower year groups through the week.

Harrogate High School has offered tests to years 10 and 11 today, with the remaining students being tested on Monday.

At both Boroughbridge High School and Outwood Academy Ripon, testing is being carried out before students return to the classroom by the middle of next week. Similarly, Ripon Grammar School begins testing on Monday and all year groups will be back in school by the end of the week.

After three rounds of tests, students across the country will be given home tests to use twice a week. The aim is to identify asymptomatic cases of covid before it can be spread to more pupils, helping to reduce the need for isolating and to keep more students in schools.

Mental health a priority as Harrogate Grammar students return

Harrogate Grammar School‘s deputy headteacher has said he hopes his new masters degree in mental health and wellbeing can be used to support pupils when they return to school next week.

Recent data from NHS England shows one in six children aged 5 to 16 has a mental health disorder.

The school said data like this and the impact of the pandemic explained why it had made mental health and wellbeing a key focus.

The Leadership of School Mental Health and Wellbeing course at Leeds Beckett University, which deputy headteacher Tim Milburn has just completed, is the first of its kind in the country.

Mr Milburn hopes the skills he has acquired will help students after the latest lockdown ends. He said;

“This has been a great experience and it has given me the understanding and confidence to effectively lead whole mental health within school using the latest research.

“The content of the course has also enabled me to adopt best practice so that the mental health and wellbeing of both staff and students is supported and strengthened.”

Mr Milburn was writing his dissertation last year when schools were closed when he changed his focus to look at how technology can be utilised to support young people with their mental health.

The school is part of the Red Kite Learning Trust, which serves over 8,000 students in Harrogate and Leeds, and Mr Milburn plans to share his knowledge with other schools in the trust to help support thousands of young people locally. He said:

“I have been very fortunate that Harrogate Grammar School and Red Kite Learning Trust have supported me to complete this course and I am really looking forward to paying back that investment by working with colleagues across the trust to continue the important work on mental health and wellbeing.”

‘We won’t abandon children’ on exams, says Harrogate headteacher

Harrogate Grammar School headteacher Neil Renton says the secondary school “won’t abandon children” as uncertainty on what will happen with GCSE and A-level grades continues.

Yesterday in Parliament, education secretary Gavin Williamson said that a form of teacher-assessed grades will be used in place of exams — but Mr Renton said schools are still awaiting clarity on how this will work in practice.

He said Year 11s and Year 13s in Harrogate are increasingly anxious about how they will be assessed,

“We need information very quickly as last year was a fiasco. Because this lockdown has come earlier than last year, we’ve got to do something to keep Year 11 and Year 13 children engaged in learning.

“We can’t just suddenly stop now and abandon them and just give them grades. We need to collect more information and teach them and finish GCSE and A-Level courses.

“The government needs to come out and give us real clarity on what evidence we will need to give them for their final grades.

“I really, really hope they base this on the information we’ve had from over two years of the course. Children have had so much disruption so we need more time to fully assess the level they’ve achieved.”

‘Chuffed to bits’

Mr Renton said the school is embracing online learning, with every pupil having access to the technology they need and the school maintaining the timetable, including live contact with teachers in each period. He said:

“This means that we’ve been able to protect their provision. We’ve been chuffed to bits with the feedback we’ve been receiving. Parents say it’s given the children structure and they’ve had that interaction with their teacher, which was harder to achieve in the first lockdown.

“Some people say it must be tiring for children to do six hours of Teams or Zoom lessons. We’re mindful of that so they are breaking off to do activities, speak to each other and talk to the teacher. It feels very similar to what they experience in school.”

Children at Harrrogate Grammar School playing in the snow on Friday.

After a heavily disrupted half term up to Christmas, with whole year groups having to self-isolate, a degree of certainty with lockdown has been welcomed. But staff and parents have been left to deal with last-minute announcements by the government, he said.

“The vast majority of the profession are really struggling because of the lateness of information and the number of U-turns by the government but I’ve been proud of our staff and community and how they’ve responded.”

On Friday, the school carried out its first lateral flow covid test, as they are rolled out across the country in an effort to identify asymptomatic cases and reduce transmission of the virus. Staff will begin being tested this week, after which students who are in school because their parents are key workers will be tested every week.

Testing for children began at Harrogate Grammar School today

While national reports suggest there have been many more students in school this time compared to the first lockdown, Mr Renton said the grammar school’s numbers were broadly the same, at around 50 to 60 students. However, he expects the number to rise as any students who are struggling at home are brought back in, and says staff are ready to support them.

Looking to the future, Mr Renton said the current challenges may result in better long-term teaching and learning, such as embracing more use of technology. He added:

“There has been a great kind of bonding. The behaviour in school was so good in September and children were so appreciative to back at school.

“We want there to be a long shadow from this experience and for it to have a positive impact in the future.”

My Year: Harrogate student’s ‘distant light at the end of the tunnel’

The challenges of 2020 were faced by young people, too, including year 13 student Matt Roberts. Harrogate Grammar School’s head student, studying photography, economics and English language, reflects on his experiences in the last year.

I think it is safe to say this year has been a strange one. If you had told me at the start of year 12 that I would spend half of it at home, being required to not go out, I am not quite sure how I would have responded.

But here I am. Thinking back, just like you might be. Wondering what a crazy year 2020 has been, whilst also thinking about how far we have come. For me, one of the biggest challenges was adapting to remote learning. We were not allowed in school, and as a result we had to learn from home.

It started off incredibly challenging but as time progressed, we adapted. We learned how to do online lessons on Microsoft Teams through our school iPads, and as students, we quickly became proactive, wanting to stay on top of the work to put ourselves in the best position we could for our exams this coming summer. We are in a fortunate position that our full timetable of lessons can be held remotely, setting us up for our final year of school.

However, things do remain challenging with some students across the country having to face repeated isolations. I myself had finished my third lockdown, and was hoping to come to school the next day. But unfortunately, due to rising cases in my year, on the eve I was set to return, we were all sent home until after Christmas.

Despite all of this, there have been lots of positives we can take from this year.

At school we have shown that we are able to adapt to change, and that we can pull together when we need to, and across the country this has been illustrated perfectly by the NHS. We were also fortunate enough to have Captain Sir Tom Moore to help us through those initial months, showing that there can always be something to smile about, while raising £32 million!

Although the light at the end of the tunnel may be distant, it is there, and getting nearer.

On behalf of the Harrogate Grammar School community, I want to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year. Stay safe, and keep smiling!

Upgrades for three Harrogate district schools

A major extension to Harrogate secondary school has been built, whilst two primary schools have been granted planning permission this week to expand.

Harrogate Grammar School has completed work on a £1.75m extension to connect its 1930s old building to a 1960s design block. It includes three classrooms on the first floor and a large atrium below, which forms a new student entrance.

The secondary school exceeded its planned student admission number of 260 to 285 over the past five years so needed the extra classroom space.

The expansion means the school can increase the number of places available to 290.

Spofforth C of E Primary School will build a 227 square metre classroom extension, after being granted planning by North Yorkshire County Council yesterday.

A “dilapidated” 180 square metre prefabricated building which the school has used since the 1970s will be demolished to make way for the new building. It will include classrooms for reception and key stage one, as well as two glazed canopies.

Rossett Acre Primary School has been given the green light this week by Harrogate Borough Council to build a new hard court multi-use sports pitch.

Children will be able to play five-a-side football, basketball and netball on the court, and offer opportunities for sport when the school’s playing field is unusable due to bad weather

All 285 year 11 pupils at Harrogate Grammar sent home due to covid

All 285 students in year 11 at Harrogate Grammar School have been told to stay at home to self-isolate for two weeks.

The school contacted families yesterday after the number of infections gradually increased between Thursday and Sunday to eight.

Only pupils in close proximity to those who test positive should isolate.

But the school decided to put the whole year group into isolation when the number of cases rose to eight.

It comes at a difficult time for the students, who were preparing to take mock GCSE exams this week.

A school spokeswoman acknowledged the outbreak had occurred at a bad time but added “the safety of pupils and staff must come first”.

Pupils will now use school computers to complete some of their exams at home – at the same time as they would have done at school.

The students will upload their exam results into a secure folder.

A spokesperson for the school said:

“We know and respect that the students have worked hard to prepare for these exams so we wanted to give them the opportunity to complete them.

“We have made it achievable with the iPads, and so far we have had positive feedback.”

Harrogate Grammar School confirms covid case

Harrogate Grammar School revealed today that a pupil has tested positive for coronavirus.

The school said it had identified 45 other students who have been in close proximity to the pupil and told them to stay home for 14 days to isolate.

It did not confirm which year group had been affected.

But it said its safety measures had prevented any teachers needing to isolate.

A spokesperson from Harrogate Grammar School, said it had acted on advice from North Yorkshire County Council, adding:

“We can confirm that we have a positive case of covid in our school community. All parents have received a letter.

“We can’t confirm which year group the student is in as that is confidential. Due to year groupings and fixed seating plans for each class we have been able to identify those in close proximity and this in turn has meant the whole year group bubble has not had to self-isolate.”

Dr Lincoln Sargeant, North Yorkshire County Council’s director of public health, said:

“We expect from time to time there will be positive cases affecting teachers, parents or pupils. This may be reflective of the background increase in cases across North Yorkshire. We will work with each school individually to determine the best approach to take depending on the circumstances.

“If you haven’t been contacted by the school, then your child is not a contact of the person who has tested positive and can continue attending school as normal. Please only get a test if you have symptoms or are instructed to by contact tracers.”

Schools prepare to reopen doors for new term

Schools across the district are preparing to reopen next week, with new measures including face masks and separating year groups in place as covid restrictions continue.

Among those to have announced the adaptations it will make is Harrogate Grammar School, which will reopen on Monday, September 7 with a number of “significant changes” in place to ensure safety and limit coronavirus outbreaks.

The school has re-organised classrooms and the cafeteria, staggered lunch and finish times and put in place a contingency plan for those needing to self-isolate. Additional cleaning staff have also been hired.

The grammar school will open to staff on September 7 and spread the full reopening for students over the next three days. All year groups will return by September 10.

Neil Renton, headteacher of Harrogate Grammar School, said:

“Work has taken place over the summer period to ensure that school is ready to safely welcome our students back in September. One of the most significant changes that students will experience when they return are the year group groupings. In addition, we have developed a contingency plan for remote education where a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate. This plan draws on all our learning and development during lockdown.

“We very much recognise that children will experience a variety of emotions in response to the coronavirus outbreak such as anxiety, stress or low mood. We will continue to support students through a variety of well-being initiatives, pastoral support and our emphasis on positive relationships.”

Students will be spaced out to allow for appropriate distancing between staff and pupils.

Parents in the district had previously called for further information regarding safety measures within schools ready for the new term to begin.

New government advice says children within “hot spot” areas are to wear face masks in congested areas such as corridors. The current number of cases in Harrogate means this is not expected be put into action in local schools next week.

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‘Chuffed to bits’

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