Welcome to Hedingham School

Hedingham School’s performance of Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit,’ adapted for the stage by Glyn Robbins, was greeted with rapturous applause from audiences last week. The students, who had been rehearsing the play for over 4 months, were delighted with the response and felt it had made all their hard work worthwhile. The performance involved students from Year 7 to Year 12 on stage with many other students and staff members helping behind the scenes. As Headteacher, Mr John Panayi commented,’It was a magnificent performance with some superb acting from students of all ages.’

Josh Metcalf, aged 12 from Braintree, gave a captivating performance of the lead character Bilbo Baggins (complete with hairy toes!) and seemed to be made for the role. The interaction between him and 15 year old Year 11 student John Snell, who played the wizard Gandalf was excellent. The wizard towered over little Bilbo, as they went on their journey with the dwarves, meeting wood elves and evil goblins and trolls on their way. The dwarves were on stage all evening and showed huge commitment to their part of their performance. These roles were played by Year 8 students, Archie Gault, Lyndon Goff, Owen Lee and Jonny Banks-Seeney, led by Jacob Parrott who gave a most convincing performance as Thorin the chief dwarf. The costumes, which had been borrowed from the Hope Players in Cambridge who had staged the play last year, were wonderful and really helped the actors to get into their roles.

Hedingham School’s annual Certificate Evening was held on Thursday 5th January 2012 to celebrate the achievements of GCSE and A level students last year. The Sports Hall was packed with students, parents, family members, teachers and friends who joined together to celebrate the excellent results the school achieved last year and the personal achievements of individual students.

The school was delighted that Baroness Anne Gibson of Market Rasen (OBE) kindly agreed to present the certificates and prizes to students. Baroness Gibson is currently Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords, but she has also had a long association with Hedingham School since she lived in Castle Hedingham in the 1970’s and was a member of the Governing Body of the school. Her grandson is presently a student at the school so her link with Hedingham will continue for some time to come!

Eighteen year old Simon Lucas Hughes, who left Hedingham School in the summer, won a prestigious music competition earlier this year where his prize was the opportunity to produce and record an album. Simon, who lives in Wickham St Paul, is now at the point where his album is being launched later this month on Wednesday 21 December at the Apex in Bury St Edmunds.

Simon has written all eleven tracks for the album which is entitled ‘All the Time, Sometimes’. He has also played all the music which includes guitar, keyboard and bass guitar which is an amazing achievement and testament to how musically talented Simon is. He then mixed the tracks and added in programmed electronic drums. Simon has managed to do all this in less than six months whilst also studying his Art Foundation year at Colchester Institute which is an incredible feat! Simon will be performing songs from the album at the launch along with other support acts who will warm up the audience before Simon takes to the stage as the headline act. Simon says he is really excited about the launch and very much looking forward to performing.

Hedingham School student Olivia Hill from Sible Hedingham was delighted to discover recently that she had won 2 categories in a photographic competition organised by Marks Hall, Coggleshall. Year 9 student Olivia is 13 years old and has only recently become interested in photography after her grandfather bought her a camera for her birthday. She has obviously learnt the skills necessary for success very quickly as the judges thought so highly of her entries in the competition!

Olivia submitted a photograph of a part of the building of Marks Hall, beautifully reflected in the lake, as one of her winning entries and she was delighted to find out that this photograph will be used by Marks Hall in their marketing materials. Another photo of two ducklings on the estate was a winner in the Harmony category and will also be used for publicity purposes. As well as winning 2 categories Olivia was also a runner up in a third category with another photograph taken at Marks Hall so she can be very proud of her efforts.

We will shortly be issuing reports for Year 7 and Year 8. Please follow the link for more information…

Congratulations to Alice Davage; she is November’s Jack Petchey Award Winner.

Alice was nominated because she had 100% attendance at the two clubs she belonged to; the Blues Band and the School Orchestra and she has made considerable improvement in her Saxophone lessons. Alice has set a great example to the younger members of the groups and help create a strong sense of community.

Mr. Panayi presented Alice with a Certificate, Badge and Cheque on Thursday 17 November 2011.

Hedingham School hosted a workshop with Devon Artists and Sculptors Gary and Thomas Thrussell. T he Artists who work in mild steel, copper and stainless steel using forging, welding and sheet metal working processes have been commissioned to design a community sculpture by Sible Hedingham Parish Council with planning gain funding.

T he purpose of the workshops was to help design panels of a new heritage sculpture. As the sculpture will be in public they wanted ideas for the content of the panels set into the chimney sculpture. The chimney represents the brick industry that once flourished here.

Art teacher Amy Wilesmith organised for a group of Gifted and Talented Year 9 pupils (13 and 14 year olds) to work with the artists.

While Strictly Come Dancing fever sweeps the nation, Hedingham School is very proud to have its own dancing star in twelve year old Georgia Conway from Great Yeldham. Georgia recently competed in the British Nationals held in Guildford and performed to a very high standard against competitors from all over the country. Despite only dancing seriously for the last year, Georgia achieved a third place for her set dance, fifth place in her solo and sixth place in the pairs category. She was awarded 3 national trophies and said, ‘I am really happy to have done so well!’ Georgia will need to buy extra shelves for her trophy cabinet as she has now won 31 trophies in the past year – an amazing achievement!

Danny was nominated for his supportive work with younger students, particularly with Year 6 statemented students, at the Hatters Tea party, assisting with literacy games and helping with reading in the Student Support Centre. He is a conscientious and caring member of the school community.

Mr. Panayi presented Danny with a Certificate, Badge and Cheque on Monday 31 October 2011.

Jack Petchey Award - September 2011

Congratulations to Harry Fryer; he is September’s Jack Petchey Award Winner.

Harry was nominated for helping Charlie Nott, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy, to get to the mini bus during the Sponsored Walk. He carried Charlie on his back for around 30 minutes when it was evident that Charlie could go no further. He also kept Charlie laughing and his spirits up until he arrived at the mini bus. He is a conscientious and caring member of the school community.

Mr. Panayi presented Harry with a Certificate, Badge and Cheque on Wednesday 5 October 2011.

At the weekend Clarice Parratt and Luke Vosper, 15 year old students at Hedingham School, took part in the regional final of Open Mic UK, the biggest competition for unsigned artists in the country. After performing ‘Promise this’ by Cheryl Cole they were delighted to be voted into the next round by the judging panel. This was quite an achievement as only 7 acts were chosen from 27 at the competition which was held in Basildon on Sunday night. As the judges included people involved in the music industry, Clarice and Luke were particularly pleased to hear that they were in the judges’ top fivefavourite acts. Clarice said, ’I was really excited to be performing in front of such a large audience and important judging panel’.

GCSE Results 2011 - 25th August 2011

Hedingham School is delighted with a bumper year for examination results. Last week it received its best ever A Level and AS Level results with pass rates of 99% and 96% respectively, but now the school has gained outstanding GCSE results which are way above the previous records. 69% of students gained 5+ A*-C grades including Maths and English. This is a spectacular improvement from 45% in 2010 and is well above the previous best of 56% in 2009. 88% of students secured 5+ A*-C grades which again exceeded the 81% achieved in 2009. 98% of students attained 5+ A*-G passes.

There were excellent results attained in a number of subjects, including English, Maths, German, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. A number of students have gained outstanding individual results. Emily Skipp gained 12A* and four A grades, Rebecca Lyne received 12 A*s and one A, and Charity James achieved 11A*s and four As.

John Panayi, Headteacher, said, ‘This is clear evidence that Hedingham is a good school. I am delighted that the hard work of both my students and staff has been rewarded by such wonderful results. In particular, I must thank parents as they have played an invaluable role in supporting student success. Everyone is very pleased with this year’s results which have exceeded all previous performance.’

Hedingham School is delighted with its best ever results at A and AS Level. 99% of students gained a pass grade in their A Level exams

I had some very productive meetings with House Councils and teachers towards the end of last academic year. We discussed the school Vision and Mission and decided our Vision articulates our ethos and what we want our school to provide for our students within a forward looking 21 st Century environment.

We revised the school Mission which is now the School Core Purpose. Our Core Purpose is written from a student’s perspective and outlines what they should expect from Hedingham School. It also reminds all staff what we should be providing to our students.