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It has been another busy week at Hastings, we have had a Para-Olympian visit (Thank you Sam Ruddock! @samruddockT35) alongside the ongoing Post 16 presentations for year 11, careers interviews and trips out to STEM events. We have also had lots of people come into school to see us; that has included other schools looking to share some of the good practice we have but a lot of visitors in to try and improve the facilities and resources available at the school.  We are trying to raise the profile of the school and build links to the local community and …

This week l have been reminded of this quote by John F Kennedy but with a focus on community rather than country.  Community is the first of our school values and our pupils this week have been focusing on what it means to do something for our community and have been asked to consider why our actions outside of school are as important as those inside of school. On Thursday afternoon our year 7’s hosted an afternoon tea for ‘someone special’.  By some miracle we managed to serve tea and cake to well over 200 people in the hall!  This …

We have welcomed our pupils back from what we hope was a restful half term break.  This week our theme has been ‘Community’ and Miss Bradley and myself have led assemblies on this. This week I have been privileged to be asked to be photographed as part of a students’ GCSE photography project.  I was asked to display various extreme emotions and then have my picture taken from three different angles.  I had to display severe anger, neutral, sadness, deep in thought and extreme happiness.  This linked to our assemblies as we talked about the All Blacks and their ‘Blue …

There is a chaos theory that states that if enough butterflies beat their wings at the same time in the Amazonian rainforests, the force created, would be great enough to trigger a hurricane thousands of miles away. I am often reminded of this at Hastings where it can be the smallest of things that make the biggest difference. Today, everybody has been encouraged to wear something yellow to raise awareness of mental health. It is a small thing, but collectively sends an important message, that we all have a part to play in looking out for each other and making …

It’s been another busy week at Hastings High School.  On Monday we had our first Personal Development day of the year.  On these days the timetable is collapsed and pupils rotate through different activities and groups throughout the year.  Monday saw year 11 learning about study skills and how to revise through the Elevate program, whilst both year 10 and 11 went to a careers fair held on the school site to get them thinking about their future post Hastings including local colleges and businesses. In the lower year groups we had a variety of activities ranging from first aid, the dangers of …

This quote was part of a presentation that two of our year 9 Edge Ambassadors delivered during one of our parent information evenings this term.  In this sentence they have captured so much of what our curriculum at Hastings aims to achieve; that alongside academic excellence we aim to develop young people that will have the confidence and skills to go out in to this world and make a positive difference. At our Open Evening last night so many of our pupils demonstrated that they are already well equipped for life beyond Hastings. Pupils from all year groups volunteered to …

It has been another busy week in the life of Hastings High school.  This week we have had our first formal fire drill (and our first as Co-Headteachers…).  The pupils all left the school quickly and calmly and one of the rare occasions I get to address the whole school at once.  Overall the evacuation of the building and being back in lessons took just over 10 minutes, that’s no mean feat with nearly 950 people! Thursday saw us welcome year 7 parents to our parent information evening, it was great to see everyone and talk them through the amazing …

Our assemblies this week have been led by Mrs Hardman and have focused on learning habits. Pupils were asked to think about the words of Aristotle and how they can apply them to their daily learning. At Hastings we believe that all of our pupils are capable of achieving excellence and that with the right habits and motivation anything is possible. Our teaching and learning framework teaches pupils the habits that they need to pursue excellence. All of our lessons use the first five minutes to recap previous learning, promote oracy so that pupils can articulate and share their ideas …