Newsletters

HGSS Newsletter - February 2025

Dear Parent or Carer

Welcome to our end of half-term three newsletter.  It is great to see such a wide range of activities having taken place in this short half-term, including: trips to Woodrow, Year 7 football league cup wins, great art work, students supporting the language skills of Year 2-6 in primary schools, the Young Chef Awards and our three superstar Oxford University applicants and interviewees. 

It has been great to see so many of our students making hugely positive contributions to our community by supporting in lessons, helping run after school clubs, participating in a range of extra-curricular activities, completing hundreds of hours of volunteering through our Duke of Edinburgh programme, etc.  In particular, our Sixth Form MIND mentors do a fantastic job.  They are Sixth Formers who have been trained by the charity MIND to support younger peers.  They take great pride in this role and are very keen to be updated weekly on the progress of their mentee and have a fabulous impact on the well-being of the student they are working with and in return themselves benefit through developing skills, but recognising that we get more out of giving than receiving.  Thank you MIND mentors.

We are also thrilled to be able to award our first Exceptional Performance Badge to  student in Year 8 for her voluntary contribution to the local community.  Well done Isabella Haslett.

We are very excited to see our new solar panels, that have been installed this half-term, up and running after it.  These are to be connected to our network over half-term and should end up reducing our carbon footprint by 50% bring benefits all round to the environment and finances over-time.

We wish Year 11 and 13 good luck with all their revision as they have their heads down over half-term with GCSEs and A Levels fast approaching.

Reports for Years 7-10 and 12 have just been released which now give parents/carers a clear indication how their child is doing in each subject area in comparison to their peers.  We look forward to supporting students make improvements to move up the ranks in their relevant subject areas.  At a whole-school level there are really clear links between high attendance, excellent attitude to learning scores and performance in each subject area.

As a reminder, Monday 24 February is a staff training day and all students begin timetabled lessons on Tuesday 25 February.

I leave you with a loose quote from Marcus Aurelius:

“When you focus on being a good person—someone others trust, admire, and want to support—you’re not just building a career or a reputation, you’re building a meaningful life.”

We wish everyone a great holiday.

Ed Hillyard

Headteacher

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EXTRA CURRICULAR CLUBS AND ACTIVITIES

We run a range of additional experiences for our students to participate - as taste of which are listed below.

If you wish to book your child onto one or more of these activities, please do so through the link to SchoolCloud:

Please visit https://holmergreensenior.parentseveningsystem.co.uk to book your extra curricular clubs.  Login with the following information:

Student’s First Name (preferred)

Student’s Surname  

Student’s Date of Birth

Year 11 Badminton and Table Tennis

Badminton Club

Music Band A - if new, speak to Mr Spasevski first to know which band to join

Music Band B - if new, speak to Mr Spasevski first to know which band to join

Basketball Club

Chemistry GCSE Intervention (High Tier Paper)

Child Development

Choir

Construction

FTC Robot Club

GCSE Geography Intervention

Girls Football

History Intervention

Library/Homework Club

Multi-Gym Club

Music Composition Intervention

Science revision

Volleyball

Y9, 10 and 11 Gym club

Year 11 Band Practice

Year 11 English Revision

Year 11 GCSE PE Badminton/Table Tennis intervention

Year 11 GCSE PE Intervention

Year 11 Higher 11ab1 and 11ab2

Year 11 Maths Foundation 11ab6, 11ab7 and 11ab8

Year 11 Maths Higher 11ab3, 11ab4 and 11ab5

Year 11 RS Revision

Year 13 After School Intervention

Year 7 & 8 Netball

Year 7 Football

Year 9,10 and 11 Netball

Year 11 D&T Catch up

 

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On Monday 27 January, the Language Ambassadors of Holmer Green Senior School visited another local school, Widmer End Primary School.

The group of ten students and teacher, Mr Larkin, left HGSS at 9am. When we arrived, we signed in and set up our activity stations, ready for the children to arrive.  Each year group from Year 2 to Year 6 took a turn to take part in the activities in the main school hall.  The activity stations included: A French bakery, French bingo, matching French pictures and phrases, boules and French twister.  Mr Larkin went round helping both the Language Ambassadors and the primary school students with their French.  

The students were well-behaved and learnt more French than they knew before.  Once finished the ambassadors helped tidy up, before heading back to HGSS for third period.  

We had a great time and it was a good learning experience for all!

Freya Owen, Year 9

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Year 7
League Cup Triumph

The year 7 Football team travelled to Chiltern Hills Academy to play in the Inaugural Chiltern League Cup.

The boys came away victors 5-0

Milo Smith with 4 goals and Henry Halley with 1.

The Year 7 team are still alive in the County Cup, with a Semi Final to be played in the last week of Half Term!

A big thank you also goes out to Callum Martin (Year 13) for all his help managing the Year 7 team.

Congratulations!

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06 Feb 2025
CHRISTMAS SHOWCASE 2024
Please follow the link below to view our Christmas Showcase 2024
Read more
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STEM Club

The Science department at Holmer Green Senior School have been running a STEM club for all KS3 and KS4 students this term.  

Students put their Science knowledge into practise by making pressure pads, sending messages in Morse code and using invisible ink to leave messages for others.

The theme ‘Zombie apocalypse’ allowed students to explore Science in a fun and engaging way.

HGSS Trips – Spring 2

This half-term we have had several local trips, with the Rotary Young Chef’s Competition at John Hampden School, MFL French students visited Widmer End School for a French Market, SEN students started a series of local visits and further MFL students attended Dr Challoner’s High School for a MFL Spelling Competition.

Music students have just had an amazing weekend at Woodrow, enjoying both outdoor activities and music sessions. 

This half-term holiday we have two overseas residentials; A Level Geographers are flying to Sicily and GCSE Spanish students are flying to Seville!  We hope they all have a wonderful experience.

Emma Carter

Trips Coordinator

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Traffic and Parking

Can we start by saying thank you to the huge majority of parents who do not drive down Parish Piece.  This has been very helpful in allowing students to exit more safely and to clear more quickly.  We would still encourage more students to walk, cycle, or catch the bus to build their independence? If you really do need to travel by car, please drop your child(ren)?away from the school vicinity and allow them to walk? Please park safely, legally and respectfully at all times, particularly further than 10m away from any junction and not blocking the entry or exit to any bus stops? We are very keen to keep our students and other road users safe at all times.

SCHOOL UNIFORM CODE

click here

 

Please can we remind you of our School Uniform requirements. 

All information (including a link for name labels) can be found by following this link below:

School Uniform and Equipment

Attendance:?

Full attendance at school is really important to all students' progress.? However, there are obviously times when a student may be unwell (for example).? If your?child is unable to attend school?please email attendance@holmer.org.uk?or call the Attendance line (01494 719901) and leave a message. 

PARENTS' ASSOCIATION

Our Parents' Association work hard to raise funds for your children in school and to promote the school in the local community.

Please support them were possible and if you wish to become involved with the Team, please contact office@holmer.org.uk

More information is available on the website:

Parents' Association

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR CHILD IS ILL OR HAS MEDICAL NEEDS

The school has Medical and Attendance Officers.  They are available during school hours to discuss matters relating to the health of your child.   It is essential that you notify them of any health problems that your child may have (e.g. medical details, particular problems or needs).  We can store spare asthma inhalers and epipens and diabetes monitors.

If your child is taken ill or is involved in an accident during the day, he or she will be looked after in the Medical Room until we can contact a parent or carer.  Students should tell their teacher or report to the Medical Room if they feel unwell and not make direct contact with you by mobile phone.

If your child needs to take medication during the day, it should be clearly labelled with the child’s name and passed to the Medical Officer with a letter from the parent or carer. Students who have a medical or a dental appointment should take the appointment card to the Medical Room first thing in the morning.  These appointments should be arranged outside school hours where possible.  We do not expect a student to take a whole day off for a medical appointment.

LATE ARRIVAL AND ABSENCE

The school gates lock at 8.45am, so students must be on site by this time.  Students should be at line up by 8.50am.   If your child arrives after 8.45am they will be marked as late. They are required to sign in at the Attendance/Medical Room.

In the first instance the student will be warned to be punctual in the future.  If a student is consistently late there will be sanctions.  Persistent poor punctuality or attendance will be referred to the Education Welfare Officer.

Email the Attendance Officer if your child is absent or late

attendance@holmer.org.uk

When you know in advance that your son or daughter will have to miss school for any reason, we ask that you inform us in writing beforehand.

However, we reiterate that it is important for your child to attend all lessons, every day.  If your needs to attend an appointment, please try to arrange these in the school holidays or after school.

When absence is due to illness, we ask that you telephone the Medical Room as soon as possible on 01494 719901 or email attendance@holmer.org.uk. PLEASE NOTE THAT ABSENCE DUE TO ILLNESS OR MEDICAL REASONS WILL BE RECORDED AS ABSENCE ALTHOUGH IT WILL BE AUTHORISED.

Further information on attendance and Medical concerns can be found here: Medical

AUTHORISED AND UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE

Failure to notify the school will result in your child’s absence being classed as unauthorised which may result in school referring to the Education Welfare Service.  Only absences perceived by the school to be genuine will be classed as authorised.  Holidays during term time will not be authorised.  We will authorise one day for Eid celebrations.

At Holmer Green Senior School we expect an attendance of 96% or more for all students—Every Day Matters.

 

 

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FREE PORRIDGE AVAILABLE FOR ALL STUDENTS

IN THE DINING HALL EVERY MORNING FROM 8.15AM TO 8.45AM

Parents' Association

Please visit our Parents' Association page on the link below for information on how you can support the school.  Thank you

Parents' Association