Heritage High School Spring Newsletter 2018 Term 3 | Page 4

Pleasley Vale Bike Ride

Poetry Slam

Ms Newton, LRC Manager

Ms Newton, LRC Manager

On Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st January 2014 two groups
of students from Heritage High School went to Pleasley Vale
Outdoor Activity Centre to learn about bicycle safety and go
on a bike ride. All of the students behaved exceptionally well
on the day. They observed all the safety rules and, despite
the icy weather, they all came back in one piece!

On 18th December a performance poet called
Dreadlockalien came in to work with our Year 11
students. The aims of the day were to challenge the
notion that poetry was ‘boring’ and to give students a
better understanding and appreciation of poetry before
their English exams.
At the start of the session Dreadlockalien performed a
freestyle poem that included the names of the Year 11
students; he had to come up with some very creative
rhymes for some of the names on the list! Students then
worked in groups to create their own love poem, a poem
about anger and a poem about war.

Four of the boys who went on the visit wrote an article about
their experience and what they learned on the day:
The bike ride at Pleasley Vale was amazing! Yes, it was a
bit cold but it was energetic and a lot of fun! We went out
with two instructors. They helped us to make sure we had
the right safety gear on and let us choose our own bikes.
We were given an orange jacket, bike gloves and a helmet
for safety. It was important to wear the orange jacket on the
roads so that cars and lorries could see us and wouldn’t run
us over. After we had put the full safety gear on we did a
bike check to make sure that the bikes were safe to ride.

Students could choose to be pro or anti-war in their poem and could focus on any aspect of war as long
as the language and imagery they used helped to capture the emotions of soldiers going to war and the
families waiting for them to come home. Students then worked together to perform their poems in a
‘poetry slam’. The best poems were voted for based on an applause-o-meter.

We learned how to work the gears on the bikes and did a
check to make sure the gears were working. Before setting
off on the long ride we rode around on our bikes to get used
to riding them. When we were all used to our bikes we set
off in pairs, side by side. When we got to the roads we had to go in single file next to the curb. We did a mixture of on road and off road cycling and in
total we rode about six miles. The off road cycling was fun because we got very muddy! We went up and down some very steep hills. At certain
points it was very nerve wracking, especially because the icy weather made it so slippery! Overall this visit was excellent. We learned a lot about
bicycle safety and we also learned about the environment that we were cycling through.
Thank you to Mrs Maxfield and Mr Agar who supported on the bike rides, to the Extreme Wheels staff for organising the rides and to Josh Ashley,
Matthew Bettison, Callum Mellors and Bradley Scott for writing the article. We would also like to give a huge thank you to Limestone Journey, the
company who sponsored the events.

Christmas Fundraising at Heritage
High School

One of the winning groups performed a poem about the futility of war, along with some creative actions to
add atmosphere to the performance. The overall winners performed their poem, about anger, to a
background of beat boxing and rhythmic stamping to make the performance interesting to watch and
listen to.
In the afternoon there was a further poetry writing session which focussed on rhyme and rhythm. Despite
being optional it was extremely well attended. The group wrote poems on an extremely diverse range of
topics from unicorns and Christmas to the importance of safe sex! Dreadlockalien was particularly
impressed with the work produced by Katy Lowe, Dane Renshaw, Lorna Lowe, Kieran Wilson, Kalem Stoddart, Brody Walters and Ricky Proffitt.
The day was diverse, energetic and a lot of fun. Students described it as: inspiring, creative, sick, mint and a journey of discovery. Dreadlockalien
certainly seems to have successfully challenged the perception that poetry is ‘boring’ with our Year 11 students!

Special Dietary
Needs
Any parent/carer who might require
special dietary arrangements for their child
taking a school meal should complete a
request form: Provision of Special Diet available to download from the school’s
website in the parents/letters section.

Mrs Pellow and Ms Newton
Students at Heritage High School worked hard in the run up to Christmas
making items to sell to raise money for good causes. The students who are
going out to Namibia in 2014 have already done a wide range of sponsored
events to raise money for their visit and have added to their total by selling a
range of festive items at Christmas events in school. In Craft Club the
students made Christmas cards, reindeer food, gift boxes, cakes, magnets
and jewellery to sell and ran competitions including raffles to win soft toys
and Christmas hampers and a ‘guess the name of the bear’ competition. All
the money raised was split bet ween the Namibia visit and the Craft Club’s
chosen charity: The RSPCA. The students raised over £200 from their stalls.
In total they have now raised nearly £4,000 to put towards the cost of their
visit.

All requests must be accompanied by a
medical referral form from either a GP or
Dietician with appropriate diet sheets
where possible.

We would like to congratulate the students on their hard work and say a huge
thank you to everyone who supported the students by buying items and
taking part in the competitions. Look out for more seasonal sales in 2014; we will be selling Valentine and Easter themed items as well as taking part
in more fundraising events in the community.
Mrs Smith (Teacher of Food/Catering) and Mrs West (Food Technician) organised a ‘great mince pie bake’ sale and raised £62. This will be divided
between Namibia appeal and school prom fund.

Christmas Singathon
Mrs Davey-Caines, Subject Leader for Music
Heritage High School’s Year 7 and Year 8 students really got Into the
Christmas spirit on 19th December with a sponsored singathon, with all money
raised going to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Every effort will be made to provide the
diet required. However, in some cases the
Catering Service will contact parents/
carers directly to clarify their child’s
particular needs. When the medical form
is received, Catering Services will discuss
the child’s needs with the Catering
Manager in school and parents/carers can
be assured of their commitment to
individual requirements.
In cases of severe nut allergy and
Phenylketonuria (PKU) parents/carers will
be asked to complete an indemnity form.
Most special dietary requests commence
immediately on receipt of the medical
referral, however for complicated dietary
arrangements this may need a lead in time
of two weeks. Parents/Carers will be
notified of a date when the arrangements
are in place.

Led by Charlie Massey in Year 8, students spent an hour singing their way through
all the Christmas favourites. The main hall was definitely alive with the sound of
music!

Once the arrangements are in place
parents/carers are requested to notify the
Catering Manager in school if they no
longer require a special diet for their child
or if they change from a school meal to a
packed lunch.

With other fundraising that week the music department have raised £160 for the
charity, and would like to thank everyone who took part.

Further information can be obtained from
Kevin Hill, Chatsworth Hall, Matlock.
Tel: [phone].

Catering News
Our award winning catering team are
putting on some special themed lunches
for our students in the months to come.
14th February
Going all pink with love!
Topys-turvy day.
11th March
Commonwealth Day
8th April
Easter Special with raffle
- buy a lunch to get free
entry into raffle for an
Easter Egg.
7th May
May Day Special
12th June
World Cup Special
4th July
Independence Day
 More choices at the top servery - pasta/
rice will be available daily.

Rewards
Rock!
Ms Marshall, Social Development Faculty Leader

Two hundred and forty-five students, the top
Vivo earners in Terms 1 and 2, were invited to
a rewards concert in the main hall on Tuesday,
17th December to see up and coming pop star
Alyssa English.
Alyssa performed 3 of her songs then
encouraged our students to join her on the
stage to showcase their own talents.
Alyssa’s ‘Girlfriend’ EP was released on 20th
January 2014.