Swinton's Got Talent! 2010
Tuesday 30th March saw The Swinton High School stage its annual Talent Show. After a long audition period with pupils performing either during the lunch time or after school, a shortlist of 13 acts was finally arrived at. One or two days a week pupils came to The Globe to practise performing in the venue for the experience they would need for the final.
All efforts culminated in an evening that promised to be both entertaining and exciting as it was hard for anyone involved in the show to predict the winner because all the performances were outstanding.
We had dance groups, rock bands, vocalists, and even a comedy sketch. The judging was particularly difficult this year, eventually producing a three way tie for third place. These were Charlotte Stevenson, Kendall Jones and Daisy Viller. Second place went to solo dancer Nicola Payton with an electrifying dance medley that tired the audience just watching.
Our eventual winner, with a stunning rendition of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ was Year 7 pupil Molly Corcoran. Head Judge, Mr Eckersley said “The talent on show was absolutely tremendous. It was brilliant to see so many young people performing with such talent. Well done to all those who participated.”
Sport Relief 2010
The Swinton High School staged a combined year 7 and 10 obstacle race in aid of Sport Relief on Thursday 18th March. Pupils paid 50p to either take part or to support their teams.
Working in combined form teams the pupils ran, bounced, balanced and squeezed through a series of challenges organised by the PE department. The pupils worked together in form time on strategies to help their teams.
Kieron Hinder in year 7 said, “it was exciting to be involved and I enjoyed cheering my team on”.
Pupils had discussed Sport Relief in form and seen the many different ways in which the funds raised work to help people less fortunate than themselves.
Form I were the eventual winners. The school raised £154.83 from the event. Half of the money raised on the last day of term before Easter is also going to sport relief.
The event was also reported on by a group of Year 10 pupils taking part in Radio Waves. This programme is a website set up for pupils to gain skills in journalism and media. The Swinton High School’s contribution to this is sponsored by Media City.
Year 7 Girls' Football Tournament
Following on from many months of regular training, the year 7 girls’ football team representing The Swinton High School took part in the year 7 football tournament that was held at Salford City Academy. Various schools took part in the 6-a-side competition and every participant proved to be a fantastic ambassador for their school.
Our players formed a team that had varying football experience, some had played before in local league teams whilst others have enjoyed this new experience and worked extremely hard to master the skills that are required to be a success.
The team competed in a number of matches on the day and our goalkeeper, Abbie Ravenscroft, kept a clean sheet throughout the tournament. Goals were scored by Rachel Farrand, Charlie Gilligan and Halima Begum and our biggest victory on the day was an impressive 4-0 win. A local scout was there on the day to watch the competition and three members of our team, Abbie Ravenscroft, Charlie Gilligan and Rachel Farrand were selected to compete in the Champions’ Challenge (formerly the Youth Games) on Saturday March 20th 2010.
Further to this, our team will be representing Salford in the Greater Manchester Schools’ Year 7 Girls’ Football County Final on Tuesday April 27th 2010 at the Salford Sports’ Village. They continue to train regularly and improve on their skills in extra-curricular time and we have no doubt that they will be a great success on the day.
BBC School News Report
On the 11th March 2010, our pupils will be broadcasting audio and radio reports across the national airwaves. 11 dedicated year nine pupils have attended after school sessions run by the BBC in news gathering, interviewing techniques and presenting.
Check out their reports here ---->
Celebrating World Book Day at TSHS
For World Book Day this year, all teachers of all subjects were encouraged to spend ten minutes of every lesson reading and discussing books with their classes. The philosophy was simple: reading is enjoyable and not something reserved purely for the English classroom. It is something that anyone can do anywhere and any time. A maths teacher, Mr Moriarty, was proof of this as he received a round of applause after reading the ‘Legend of King Arthur’ to his year nine class. This event prompted one pupil to comment: “It is great that my maths teacher read to us as well as my other teachers. I really enjoyed the story he read!”
Throughout the day, excited and enthusiastic pupils have been relaying stories of which teachers were reading what, but one impressive thing has been the number of excited teachers coming to share tales of how much they enjoyed reading to their classes. After listening to ‘The Great Mouse Plot’, an enthralled class sat silently as year seven pupil Kieran Hinder regaled them with anecdotes from the rest of ‘Boy’ by Roald Dahl. Miss Pashley’s science class were kept entertained by the animal impressions enthusiastically delivered via Kipling’s ‘Just So Stories.’
Many pupils have expressed an interest in the stories and extracts they have listened to today. Some, such Olivia Pease in year eight reflected how they had, “Enjoyed listening to other teachers reading,” and others such as David Barnett in year was one of many who wanted to get hold of more ‘Lemony Snickett’ books.
A delighted Mrs Lydia Tennant, Literacy and library coordinator at The Swinton High School, said, “we’ve all enjoyed ourselves; a big thank you to all of the staff and our entire school community for being involved!”
TSHS Does it again!!
The Swinton High School once again surpassed all expectations with its production of The In Crowd.
Written by members of staff at the school, the show looked at Salford life in the 1960s through the eyes of a group of teenagers from different backgrounds, who all come together at legendary 60s nightclub The Twisted Wheel.
Mr Kerns, the school’s community manager and the show’s technical director said, “This was one of the most challenging shows to date. Featuring more dialogue and acting than ever before as well as songs that the pupils were unfamiliar with, the cast excelled themselves. Our stage crew also had their hands busy, as we used more lights and more effects and more props than ever before.”
Played out on stage together with a live band, over 50 pupils eventually took part as a performer as or as part of the technical crew.
Miss Neath, Director of Performing Arts said, “The commitment shown by the pupils was second to none. Rehearsals ran well into the evenings and even weekends. I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their hard work.”
The performances began on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th December with two performances playing to over 450 local primary school children, all of who thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Evening performances over 3 nights eventually saw the audience numbers swell to well over 1000 – another record for the school.
Keep a close look out for more pictures soon!
Exam Results - August 2009
93% 5A*-C Grades
This year The Swinton High School once again surpassed all expectations
and gained its best ever GCSE results.
Congratulations to all of our year 11 leavers who achieved 93% 5A*-C grades and 43% 5A*-C grades including English and maths this summer.
This was our:
- Eighth successive year of GCSE A*-C grade improvements
- Third successive year of best ever GCSE 5A*-C including English and maths
- Best ever A*-C grades in English, maths, science and ICT
- Best ever A* and A grades
- Best ever 5A*-G grades and 1A*-G grades
- Fifth successive year that we expect to be members of the elite Specialist Schools and Academies Trust most Improved Schools Club
Headteacher John Biddlestone said, "Fantastic! It’s been a joy to work with such a fine group of young people and it’s been a privilege for us to have the opportunity to give them such a good start in life. We look forward to hearing of their future successes and wish them all the very best!”
Outstanding Individual Achievement in this year’s GCSEs
Our congratulations this year go to Sarah Jameson who achieved outstanding results of 15 A*-C grade GCSEs, with 14 of those being A* grade. Sarah said “I am extremely pleased and proud of my results. I am also very relieved now that I have got them. I would like to thank all of my teachers from the past 5 years, in particular those in my GCSE years”. Sarah now goes on to study an International Baccalaureate at Eccles College and is then hoping to study Law or Physics at either Oxford or Cambridge University.
We also congratulate Daniel Egan who achieved outstanding results of 16 A*-C grade GCSEs, with 9 of them being either an A or A* grade. Danny said “I’m happy with my results, in particular my two A’s in Performing Arts and my A’s in Drama and Textiles. I would like to thank my teachers for their support over the last 5 years, especially at the end when it was very stressful”. Danny now goes on to study Science, ICT and Maths at Pendleton College. He then hopes to go to Bangor or Plymouth university to study Marine Biology.
Another pupil who achieved outstanding results was Josh Baines with 13 A*-C grade GCSEs with grades A and A* in Maths and Science. Josh said “I’m really pleased with my results, especially in Science, Maths and ICT”. Josh now goes to Eccles College to study Physics, Maths, ICT and Psychology and then hopefully on to university to study Physics.