Dear Parent / Carer
I am writing to you to let you know about two special events taking place in school next week.
We are holding our annual ‘Love Learning’ week in school where our boys will be able to earn some ‘love learning’ tokens. These will be added to their existing totals to save and exchange for an item of their choice. We will also be giving out badges to celebrate the week.
Also, we are having a special assembly where students will be given the chance to share and celebrate their learning. This will take place next Friday.
We appreciate your continued support towards your child’s learning experiences. Please see below for ways in which they can earn their ‘love learning’ tokens.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact either of us at school.
Yours faithfully,
Karl Adamski Helen Heslop
Head of Education Head of Curriculum
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We are pleased to share that WHSS has been recognised as a Sleep Right Accredited School.
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Following on from the continued work that has been introduced in terms of our Quality of Life framework;
We are pleased to announce we have recruited Gareth Potts to continue to work with us to develop the Health and Wellbeing aspects of QoL
For those who are yet to meet Gareth, he is an ex professional Rugby League player and the owner of Ultra Gym in Wakefield. Gareth is a qualified Level 3 Personal Trainer and holds a BTEC National Diploma in Sports and Exercise Science as well as a Degree in Sports and Exercise Therapy.
Gareth has already been working with staff, students and our families here at WHSS, looking at and helping to improving their own health and wellbeing. This has been delivered through a blend of both education and physical exercise sessions. The staff who have engaged in the sessions and embraced the advice and support provided have seen some fantastic results as have our students and families via Zoom sessions.
We are excited to launch our first monthly “Health and Wellbeing Challenge” (see attached). We hope you are keen to jump on board and get involved.
Please post your entries to the following email address:
qualityoflife@whsschool.org.uk
The William Henry Smith School works with children and young people aged 5-19 across a broad spectrum of social, emotional and mental health challenges. During this half term two of our classes, Adams and Clancy have been working with IVE, a progressive training company that encourages creativity and solution-focused learning and West Yorkshire Police Calderdale Early Intervention Team to develop new innovative ways for improving mental health.
Both groups have been taking part in IVE Applied Creativity Labs over 9 sessions and have included people from Mental Health in Business, Hope University and Inspire Ignite. Mental Health IVE have led creative problem-solving training and supported the school to develop totally new, innovative ideas to improve mental health which they pitched via zoom to an Industry Panel – ‘Dragon’s Den’ style - on Tuesday 30th March at 10.30am! The panel included personnel from ‘Time Out’ Calderdale, West Yorkshire Police and the Mental Health in Business. The panel offered the groups constructive feedback and suggestions for next steps to develop their ideas further.
The ideas from both groups were –
Adams Class – A board game that focussed on children’s mental health.
Clancy Class – A Pet simulator App for all ages to develop empathy and self-responsibility.
All the students gained a better understanding of mental health throughout the whole process.
The panel stated that both were great ideas.. and it looks like there is a possibility of a William Henry Smith School Mental Health Board game going Nationwide!! WOW!! The Programmes Director from Creative Learning have said that they would love to help the school pursue the next steps for development of the board game ie contacting some board game companies etc to see what next steps could take to pilot it.
A special mention was made to the artist in Clancy group too – to keep up the art work!
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We would just like to take this opportunity to share with you, two fantastic examples of how the ‘Family Quality of Life Sessions’ that we have been running since December 2020, have impacted positively on both Liz and Patricia’s lives and their families.
The sessions will continue to run from Thursday 22nd April- 5-6pm, if you would like to take part please get in touch with myself or AJ.
gareth.walters@whsschool.org.uk
Anthony.Hemigway@whsschool.org.uk
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On Thursday 1st April, there will be the Big Egg Hunt.
In addition, there will also be:
We have recently had a H&S Audit through Calderdale Council and have been granted 5 stars for Health & Safety!
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Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service Offer
for Children and Young People in Calderdale
£1,500 CHEQUE TO CANCER RESEARCH
The William Henry Smith School in Brighouse are proud to announce that during their Carol Concert on Thursday 19 December, students presented a cheque to two volunteers from Brighouse Cancer Research totalling £1,500.
Students and staff have organised and taken part in several activities throughout the year which have included:
Coffee mornings
Walking the distance of a Marathon around Hollingworth Lake
The Mile Challenge
A Pyjama Day
A Bake Off challenge
As well as the above our Friday and Saturday Team (FAST) have slept under the stars at the Piece Hall sharing their donations between SMART Move for the Homeless and Cancer Research. Donations have also been given on a regular basis into our ‘red bucket’ during school assemblies.
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Some of our students have been working with and as part of the drama group with staff from Square Chapel.
Some of their work can be seen here.
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We are thrilled to announce that Brendan Heneghan, retired Principal, has been awarded an OBE in the Queens New Year Honours.
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