Beverley Knight invites Hairspray Cast to West End!

The cast of 'Hairspray' were lucky enough to be invited by Highfields Alumna, Beverley Knight, to the Garrick Theatre in London's West End. The star paid for 50 staff and students to watch her in a matinee performance of the hit musical ‘The Drifters Girl’.

The show, which received a standing ovation from the audience, was absolutely fantastic with breathtaking choreography and uplifting songs, students said Beverley's stunning voice is even more powerful and moving live. 

Beverley said, ‘"I believe passionately that children must be able to see their aspirations to know they can achieve them. I had a little Q&A with the kids after the show, and it just lifted my soul to see the fire in the eyes of these young performers’

After the show, Beverley went down to speak to the students alongside two other cast members. They chatted, answered questions, and posed for photos as well as signing many autographs!

Ms Bishop, Head of Performance said, 'The show was fantastic and it was very generous of Beverley to invite our students to watch it.  The story of the Drifters is fascinating and has moments of real tragedy but lots of humour too.  We were all on our feet at the end and I know lots of the students have downloaded the which is brilliant!'

Climate Change Collaboration

Year 9 have been working on a collaboration project linking to climate change. They spent time researching their chosen topic by looking into activist such as Greta Thunberg and Sir David Attenborough, people they felt engaged and inspired by in order to create a powerful dance piece. 

Students worked in small groups to portray different ideas such as the 4 elements, current ways to make a change and the impact on future generations.

Some students took inspiration from KQED Arts with the idea of creating an outside-indoor environment with the use of green confetti before taking the piece to be performed outside. They worked hard to create and modify the dance to suit the performance environment.

Storyboards were created to portray ideas on how each section of the choreography would piece together, building to the climax section where all dancers performed in unison.

Miss Weblin, Dance Teacher said, “All of the students worked very hard to make sure their timing was correct. They all chose a still pose to end the dance to show the impact climate change will have, which was very effective.”

Football success for Highfields

This year Highfields managed to get three teams into football cup finals. Year 8 Girls and Year 10 Boys played against St Chads and Year 7 Boys were up against Wolverhampton Grammar School.  

All three finals were hosted at Old Wulfrunians Football Club and were officiated by Highfields students, who did their Referee badge at Highfields through the Birmingham FA: Reuben Brickwood, Ieuan Owen, Jake Green, Jude Webb, Seb Darville, Lewis Smith, Jake Green, Jake Farley-Moss.

After a nail-biting Semi-final for the Year 8 girls’ team against Wolverhampton Grammar School winning 3-2, they went on to play a very strong St Chads team. Unfortunately, they had a team full of club players, therefore, the girls fell victim to a 10-0 defeat. Despite the loss, they all had a fantastic afternoon, and it was great experience.

The Year 7 boys had more success; they got to the final full of optimism after a tough but exciting few games.

Mr Brickwood, Head of PE said, “There was challenging competition to select the final squad and the 12 that were selected had shown great dedication to training all year and fought hard to beat league champions, St Chads, in the semi-final to set up the showdown against Wolverhampton Grammar.” 

The game ending 3-1 to Highfields, with a stellar, fighting performance from the Year 7 boys, who thoroughly deserved to lift the Corke Cup after a memorable first campaign. Officials awarded Freddie Box the player of the match but every one of the 12 played their part on the day. 

Finally, the Year 10 boys had similar success as not only were they recently crowned Division 1 Wolverhampton league winners, but they were up against Our Lady & St Chad's in their cup final.

The game concluded 3-2 to Highfields in a tense game which was led brilliantly by captain Jude Webb, ending the season as double winners!

Ex-students celebrate at Gold DofE Awards ceremony

Achieving your Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is a big deal as it shows you have the skills, determination, and mentality to really succeed.  All young people who achieve a Gold Award are invited to a Gold Award celebration event at a Royal Palace, attended by a Member of The Royal Family.

Over the last couple of years, a number of Highfields students carried out their Gold award, which involves volunteering, learning a new skill, completing a physical activity and going on a residential. Not forgetting the challenging 3-night 4-day expedition. The students completed their award earlier on in the year, therefore, it was their turn to be awarded.

The presentation took place in the gardens of Buckingham Palace and students were a part of a group of approximately 50 Gold Award holders. The ex-highfields students who attended were Hannah Griffiths, Jessica Drew, Sanar Nisar, Amreeta Kaur-Gill, Amarpreet Singh, Jindveer Khangura, Vishal Patel and Emily Walker.

Mr Moody, DofE Manager, said “This was a very special reward for all their efforts over their DofE journey that had been delayed because of the pandemic. They should all be very proud of their commitment and effort in their personal development whilst completing their award and I’m personally very privileged to have led them through their award and wish them all the best in the future.”

Music Tech club proves popular with students

Music tech club provides a space for students at Highfields to explore music creation and sound design outside of the daily curriculum. Students are encouraged to work independently to learn and master skills in audio production including sound selection, arrangement, composition, audio editing and mixing.

The group in the club use industry standard software to learn how to remix, score films, sequence music and manipulate audio. Through this they develop an awareness of pitch, timing and synchronisation whilst exploring their creativity and imagination. 

Mr Wolverson, Music Techer and Tech club leader said, “Creating music with computers is no small feat; there are many different skills and disciplines that need to be developed - a music producer must be able to multitask and switch between different roles within the production environment.”

Students spent the first term in the club getting familiar with the software by following tutorials and completing short tasks to build up their skill sets. By the spring term students were ready for their first project and were given the task of remixing the White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army'. The only guideline was to include Jack White's original studio vocal take and to ensure that any other sounds chosen were 'in key' [correct pitches] and 'in time' [sequenced accurately]. The rest was totally up to them! 

Click here to take a listen to the final audio remixes.

Readathon launched

After a 14-year absence, the Read for Good Readathon was back at Highfields this April as the English department ran the fundraising campaign with year 7 students

Launched to coincide with the Easter break, ample time for students to fill with reading, the Readathon is a sponsored read, where students set themselves a reading goal and are sponsored by friends and family to reach it. The money raised is used by the charity to buy books for children in hospitals. 

According to the Read For Good website "Our service supports seriously ill children’s disrupted learning and gives them and their families precious distraction and comfort at a time when it’s needed the most."

School librarian Miss Hallam said, "I'm incredibly pleased with how the Readathon went. The uptake in students using the library at the launch of the campaign was fantastic, I'm surprised there were any books left by Easter!.

This year students raised a brilliant £141.10 with their sponsorships.

Miss Hallam continued, “All the student who were involved should be very proud of the money they raised for such a good cause, and they've set a good target to try and beat next year." 

You can read more about the Read for Good campaign at https://readforgood.org/our-impact/

‘The Highnotes’ impress at choir competition

The 30 strong Highfields School Choir, ‘The Highnotes’ went to St Bart’s Church for a City-Wide Choir Competition.

The students went armed with their repertoire of songs, dazzling in their hot pink t-shirts, only to find they were the only entrants! The other schools had all pulled out for various reasons, so the afternoon was spent workshopping music. The songs the choir worked on included ‘In Our Service’, written for Her Majesty, The Queen’s jubilee, ‘I Give You a New Commandment’, a Sister Act medley and their own arrangement of ‘Uptown Girl’ conducted by Mr Evans. 

Paul Carr, Church organist treated students to an insight into St Bart’s Church organ which is over 150 years old. Paul, alongside Julia Bishop, Evening Choir Leader at St Bart’s, ran the vocal workshops. They made the afternoon relaxed and enjoyable for everyone involved.

During the evening, Parents and Carers went to watch and listen to the performances the Choir had prepared. The audience were all extremely impressed with the vocals and how confident they were in performance. 

Mrs Jevon, Highfields’ Musical Director, who went to support the students, said,  ‘What a lovely evening, Uptown Girl was a triumph, and everyone who took part should be really proud!’. 

Ms Bishop, Head of Performance, said, ‘Mr Evans has given the school choir a new lease of life, rebranding them as the Highnotes and winning tonight, albeit by default, is just the beginning’.

Highfields to become a UCL Centre for Holocaust Education

The History Department at Highfields will be working alongside University College London as participants in the Beacon School for Holocaust Education programme, which begins in July for a duration of 12 months.

 The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education selects a small number of schools to work with each year, supporting the development of exemplary Holocaust education within schools and the local community.  Competition for places on the programme is strong, but Miss Tappenden, Head of History, received confirmation this week that the school’s application has been successful.

 Miss Tappenden said, “This is an incredible opportunity for students at Highfields and the wider school community.  We are always reviewing our curriculum offering to ensure students get the high-quality history education that they deserve.  Understanding the Holocaust is an integral part of our Key Stage 3 curriculum. We have already invested a lot of time into our current scheme of work but look forward to reviewing this again in light of the added expertise that working alongside UCL will bring”.

 The programme will also challenge the school to consider how Holocaust education can be further embedded into the wider school curriculum. Miss Tappenden continued, “Holocaust education already plays an important role in the wider school curriculum.  It is a significant part of our assembly programme and other departments including English and RE already incorporate elements of the topic into their curriculums.  This programme will provide an excellent opportunity to work alongside other staff within school to consider how we can support each other in delivering effective and appropriate Holocaust education”.

Becoming a Beacon school will also put Highfields at the forefront of Holocaust education within the city, providing an excellent opportunity for staff from other secondary schools in Wolverhampton to work with Highfields to develop their own curriculums.  The History department already has an excellent programme of Holocaust education which includes a biannual trip to Krakow in Poland, visiting Auschwitz and other significant sites in the area.

Hairspray is returning to Highfields

After two very successful school productions this year, rehearsals for Hairspray, Highfields’ next show, have started. The production got off to a flying start over the Easter holidays with over 50 students auditioning. 

 Hairspray is set to be a fantastic show and will be the first whole school production in a number of years, forming part of Highfields’ celebrations of 10 years in the new building.

 Ms Bishop, Director of Performance said, ‘Hairspray is such a fantastic show and still so relevant today. We couldn't wait to put on this amazing show again! Highfields last staged Hairspray in 2015 and it was certainly one of our best school productions.  We have also recently taken students to the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton to see the touring production of the show, but ours will be better!’

Budding Year 10 Mathematicians take part in competition

Several Year 10 students took part in Maths Feast, a fun and educational challenge which tests problem-solving and teamwork skills. The competition was held at the University of Wolverhampton and was run by the Advanced Mathematical Support Programme. Highfields entered two teams who tested their Maths with the ‘all-you-can-eat feast of problems!’ against other schools in the West Midlands.

The challenge consists of several rounds requiring different skills and strategies for success, with awards being given for good teamwork and for the winning team of each round. The competition aims to improve problem-solving skills using recreational maths, and develops teamwork and communication skills.

Over the four rounds of Mathematical problems, one of the Highfields teams came in 3rd place out of the 14 teams that competed. They also won the award for teamwork. 

Mrs Sendell who accompanied the students said, ‘The Maths Feast competition has been running for several years and has always had a very positive response from students. This is a national competition combining Mathematical, communication and teamwork skills, so is an excellent opportunity for students and gets them more engaged in Maths’.