This edition of the Headteacher’s Blog is written by 3 excellent members of staff. This final half term is very busy; GCSE and A Level students complete their final papers, Y10 and Y12 students sit mock exams, staff complete final trackers, our careers and Sixth Form teams plan events to help all year groups (and particularly Y12) start to plan for their future and we run numerous events to welcome prospective Y7 and Y12 students and their families. And that is not even it! Over the course of this half term, we plan and host two proms, take all Y7s to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, run a Film Oscars event and host a wonderful DT and Art Exhibition. We also have our school show, Sports Day, Duke of Edinburgh Expeditions and the High Storrs Hike. Three colleagues who are key to the success of these events have each written a short section below!

Planning a school show – Lindsey Broughton

We start planning a show at least a year in advance. The whole team come together, and we debate for many an hour about productions that are most inclusive, balanced, attractive to audiences and feasible. Once decided, we have the nail biting wait to find out whether the licensing company would grant us performance rights. Then it is literally full steam ahead to plan/find a set that will work best in our space, audition performers and recruit stage crew.

This year we started with auditions and recruiting in October and went into rehearsal in November - with a cast of 70, a crew of 23 and an orchestra of 12 supported by a team of 12 staff members and a wonderful parent who provides unwavering support and talent with costume construction.

The orchestra have worked tirelessly through the abundance of musical numbers, whilst Ms Brooks has worked miracles with the cast - teaching 6-part harmonies in some numbers.

‘Anything Goes’ is very much a dance-based musical and Mrs Marsh and Miss Palmer have incorporated the most stunning choreography and taught many of our students to tap dance - from scratch - along the way.

As always, we have a challenging props list, which our fabulous technician, Miss Ellis, and her team of enthusiastic students have been completely undaunted by - creating a moon, Lobsters, a Machine gun and a Dog that can react, bark, be thrown overboard and fit down one character's trousers!

All shows need to be marketed and with the publicity limitations put in place by the licencing company, this was not without its challenges. However, our superb marketing team, with the support of Mrs Lee, created some stunning promotional material and merchandise and Ms Higginbottom and Mr Hughes set to work creating a brilliant trailer.

In a complete change to our usual chosen genre, this show is FUN! The whole cast and crew have giggled their way through rehearsals. I'm sure that our stress levels will raise by a measure or two over the next few weeks, but I can honestly say, on behalf of the whole team, this has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience and a great show to be involved in.

Planning School Sports Day – Cara Diskin

Our Sports Day takes place at the EIS on Tuesday 16 July – and involves Years 7-9 so about 750 students and lots of staff!

Planning for the PE team begins just after Easter, not only for Sports Day but for a week of Inter-house sports competitions that run up to the day itself. The inter-house sports include rounders, cross country, football, netball and basketball. Results for these competitions feed into Sports Day, where the overall sports inter-house winners are decided.

After Easter we launch our Summer Sports curriculum with athletics a core part of our T&L and extra-curricular offer. Students are encouraged to work out which events they enjoy – and where their strengths and aptitudes lie. This gets them ready for Sports Day.

Lots of planning and organisation goes into these events – but particularly for Sports Day. From organising the running of the day itself, sorting out teams, chasing permission slips, and making sure paperwork is in place and not forgetting twisting arms for the ever-popular staff relay – which is usually very competitive!

But above all else the highlight is to be part of the amazing atmosphere and buzz around Sports Day. House spirit, team spirit, school records being broken and watching students thrive and shine in a range of events at the World class EIS - Sheffield. The house colours, the chanting, the encouragement and seeing mass participation and fun is what it is all about! The tug of war competition always proves fun and sees teamwork and determination at its very best!

There really is nothing like a High Storrs School Sports Day - the energy, enthusiasm, successes and smiles on everyone's faces is something that makes all the hard work organising an event on this scale totally worth it.

And if you want to know more about HSS PE please do follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/highstorrspe?igsh=OWZ1NjZ4djd4cmRn

Planning Duke of Edinburgh Expeditions – Ines Graham Yooll

This time of year, we have two DofE Qualifying Expeditions, one for Bronze DofE (Y9) in the Peaks and one for Gold DofE (Y12) in Snowdonia.

I started planning the expeditions this time last year, booking the time in the school calendar, making sure we are licenced to run these events and have enough trained staff. From then on it sometimes seems and never-ending number of tasks and challenges like making sure the minibus is booked or reminding the students endless numbers of times to complete their online sections of the award (as I write half have done so - yippee!)

Sometimes I am asked why do I do it? For the same reason I started back in 2016, because I love seeing the students’ excitement when they talk about the tasks they must complete. I love seeing how they visibly mature with taking part in the expeditions. I love the confidence and sense of achievement they acquire from completing the DofE Award.