There was an image circulating on social media last week showing the price of staying at a Lodge in Wolburn Forest Center Parcs in February for a family of four. 

For the week commencing 10th February, it cost £429.  For the week commencing 24 Febuary, it cost £599.  For the week in between it cost £1449.  Guess which week is half term? 

What we are seeing here is price discrimination, more often called ‘dynamic pricing’ or ‘surge pricing’ where prices rise (or fall) to meet an increase (or fall) in demand.  It is the law of supply and demand, as taught to me by my economics lecturer at Leeds Poly in the 1980s.  Whilst the higher prices during school holidays always catch the headlines, the corresponding way of looking at the same picture is that the prices outside of holidays are lower than they would otherwise be.  The market equilibirum price is somewhere in between the two but the nature of the product (family holiday) and the irregular demand means that this demand has to be rationed in some way, hence the price rises during school holidays. 

There is no solution other than some form of price capping by the Government who would never engage into such a potentially hazardous market intervention.  Price discrimination happens in all markets every day, from concert ticket pricing to the wide range of different versions of similar products that you find on your supermarket shelves.  

I do not quite share the view of one headteacher that I once met who said, “It’s tough.  If you want to have kids, you need to cough up more for your holidays,” but I do believe firmly that the right place for children to be is in school.  It is hard enough for young people to maintain high levels of attendance just accounting for the daily illnesses that occur but to make this harder by taking children out of school for days and weeks for a holiday does risk the development of youngsters as well as their academic progress.  My flexibility in allowing term time holidays is extremely limited to very unique circumstances and this is set out in law.  This is sadly one of those situations in life that we just have to live with but please also consider how the same issue affects teachers who – for their entire career, whether they have children or not – always face much higher travel and holiday costs by virtue of their profession. 

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This week we have invited our Year 11 students into early morning revision club held in the canteen.  From 8.15 students can get free tea and toast and have a period of time where they can get their revision books out and do an extra 15-20 minutes of work before the school day starts.  From next week we will also be introducing revision classes in place of the tutor period for three days per week.  We are pleased to see so many of our older students now taking these opportunities and taking personal responsibility for their upcoming examination preparation.   

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Thank you as ever for your support.  Have a lovely weekend. 

Mr Groak

Headteacher

A fifteen week school term is tough and I am always impressed by the resilience shown by our students, and staff, to navigate this period of time. This morning, Mrs Todd and Mr Riches led celebration events for the students in Years 8 and 7 respectively that had completed the term with 100% attendance and no behaviour points. They were given a hot chocolate drink and a breakfast waffle. But mostly, they were pleased to be recognised for their achievement which was well deserved.

Attendance to school inevitably dips as we reach December but I am delighted that we are still tracking at 2.5% higher than the same period last year. Thank you for your support with this. Our attendance team are increasingly proactive in reaching out to families where attendance is lower than we need it to be and again I thank those of you that have collaborated with Mr Chapman and Mrs Kibart to improve your child's attendance. It really does matter, every day.

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There are a number of different opinions regarding the core purpose of a school - a place for social development, a place to acquire qualifications or a place to acquire specialist skills. Undoubtedly, schools are a place for preparing students for the next stage of their education. This is even a separate and important element of the Ofsted school inspection framework.

At Hessle, we take this part of our work very seriously and recognise that each and every one of our students has their own unique set of ambitions and potentials and that it is our job to help them on their way, whilst also seeking to challenge their ambitions and make sure they are aspirational.

The Gatsby Benchmarks is a framework by which schools and colleges evaluate the work they do in relation to careers education and features eight individual benchmarks which include careers advice appointments, opportunities to visit workplaces, the sharing of labour market information and more besides.

The goal is that schools will secure a 100% score on each of these, which demonstrates an exemplary careers programme. Some of these benchmarks have been fully secured at Hessle for some time. Benchmark 6 (workplace visits) has always been the weak point as it is for most schools, due to the difficulty of taking large groups of students out of school to visit businesses,

Last summer, we introduced a work experience placement for our Year 10 students, which managed to secure a workplace visit for 74% of our students and significantly improved our Benchmark 6 score. All eight of our benchmarks are now well above the national average which should come as great news to parents/carers who want their children to benefit from expert careers guidance.

The next steps in our careers work comes in the form of our Aiming Higher programme which is designed to challenge students to raise their aspirations and, for most students, to ensure that by the age of 18 they are 'university ready'. Having the choice to go to university is one that I want for all of our students. Not everyone will want to do this and there are some high quality degree apprenticeships that are now fantastic alternatives. But we want everyone to have the choice.

But our careers programme actually begins in Year 7 with 'All About Me' day, follows on in Year 8 with 'Ambition Day' and really accelerates through Year 9 and into Key Stage 4 with careers weeks in each of Years 10 and 11. Our careers programme helps us to deliver on our school mission - "Everyone can achieve the extraordinary", which we firmly believe in.

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With increasing numbers of students on roll and with attendance increasing steadily post-Covid, this year has seen the highest number of students ever on our Heads Lane site. This is great for the school community but brings its own challenges, not least of which the arrangements for the safe arrival and departure of our students.

For those of you that do not visit the school each day, the front of school is an incredibly busy place and features a main entrance that welcomes pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and six school buses. We rely on the safety conscious behaviour of all road and footpath users to ensure that everyone stays safe and I thank everyone who uses this space for their cooperation. This takes a large staff presence to mitigate the risk of accident and this works for us.

If you do use the school site, please always adhere to the 5 MPH speed limit which is a key element of our risk assessment. Please also be considerate and use only the spaces in the Visitors Car Park and not the priority spaces in front of reception. These are reserved for blue badge holders only, of which we have a large number who need these spaces.

New markings are in place this week and we will also be installing a speed limiter on the road as vehicles enter the school site. More than anything, your cooperation and understanding keeps the site safe. Thank You.

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We continue to insist that students are prepared for their learning. In order to do this, we need all students to ensure that they bring a school bag to school. This should ideally be a two handle backpack which can be carried comfortably over both shoulders. Other bags are currently permitted but a backpack is always preferable. The bag allows students to carry the following equipment:

• School planner - this is a compulsory element of school equipment and allows us to communicate with home, as well as record positive stamps for student conduct
• Pencil case - this should include pens, pencils, ruler and other equipment
• Water bottle - which can be filled at any of our water stations around school
• Outdoor wear- the bag should also be big enough to store an outdoor coat, scarf or hat as we do not have lockers in school

Having a bag to school improves student organisation and independence. Through 2025, we will be working with all students to ensure that these minimum expectations are met. Thank you for your support

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The Groak family will be on the road on Monday, along with the 2 million other vehicles that are estimated to be travelling for Christmas. Eventually, we will be in Surrey to spend Christmas with my in-laws, including the first Christmas for my children with their new baby cousin. I am heading back on Boxing Day (after the traditional non-league football match, Walton & Hersham v Bracknell). This will allow me to spend some time with my parents before my wife and kids head north next Saturday. On Sunday, we're braving the North Sea for a quick dash to Rotterdam to break up the holiday and then it will be feet up with nice food for New Year. Busy, but full of quality time with family with time to relax in between.

However you are planning to spend the holiday, on behalf of all the staff at Hessle High School, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

And thank you for your support in 2024.

Mr Groak

Headteacher

In September, we were proud to open the first Enhanced Resource Provision (ERP) for Cognition and Learning in the East Riding.  This came about following lengthy discussions between the local authority and school and Trust leaders to determine whether this was a feasible option for a mainstream school.   

Five years ago, this would not have been an option for the school.  Since then, we have seen a number of students with very specific Special Educational Needs join us in the school and seen them thrive.  I have mentioned Anya Findlay in this blog before and Anya, who left the school last summer and who has Down’s Syndrome, left a genuine legacy in our school.  Through her five years with us, we learned as much from her as she did from us and, in her slipstream, came similar students, Lara and Mia.  The skills and ability of our staff to educate and support these students grew and, a couple of years ago, we began to see a rise in the number of families applying for places at our school on the back of the reputation we had gained for supporting students like those girls. 

This led Jo Anderson (our SEND Coordinator, Assistant Head and member of staff at Hessle for over twenty years) to begin the process of bidding for an ERP for similar students.  This makes us a local centre of expertise and provision, comes with appropriate funding to recruit more staff and enables us to build the staff skillset to further our work. 

We are now almost a term into this provision and delighted that it has been as successful as we had hoped.  It will take time to fully develop our provision but the outcome of this is that a number of students, who might otherwise have struggled to cope in a mainstream school, can enjoy their educational journey in a large school with a bustling and vibrant student population and ‘fit in’ and belong.  That is priceless for the students but also an enriching experience for all of our other students who learn about diversity and respect through their daily interactions with each other. 

No performance tables or Ofsted inspection framework can measure the impact of this on young people.  We do it because it is the right thing to do and changes lives. 

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This week, we held our now-annual Christmas Fayre.  Over recent weeks, students have spent some time in their tutor groups planning the products and activities they would bring to the Fayre and it culminated on Wednesday during lunchtimes and after school.  There was a lovely atmosphere with students, staff and parents browsing the stalls, buying cakes and gifts, playing games and contributing to the four House Charities.  The amount raised was phenomenal and will be revealed to the students in their end of term celebrations.  The House system in school helps students across different year groups to mingle and socialise in a way that doesn’t happen in normal classes and I am very grateful to the four members of staff who, this year, are leading their Houses – Mr Adams, Miss Foster, Miss Deveney and Mr Griffiths and to Mrs Bourne who coordinates them.  And finally thank you to those who supported by buying their wares. 

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As we reach the end of Week 13, we are now a third of the way through the school year and there are some key events coming up.  Aside from Christmas, we have multiple visits for students and those in Year 9 will, after the holidays, begin their pathways process with a series of assemblies informing them about Key Stage 4 and the options process. 

Students in Year 7 and Year 8 will begin new topics after Christmas as they progress through their Key Stage 3 curriculum and students in Year 10 will begin new GCSE units and coursework continues in earnest.  Students in Year 11, of course, are counting down the days to their real GCSE exams but before that will face another round of Mock Exams in February.  Lots going on and the cycle of another academic year moves around again. 

However you are spending this weekend, stay warm and safe and thank you for your support.   

Mr Groak

Headteacher

The coldest city on earth is a place called Yakutsk, in Siberia.  Average winter temperatures are minus 55 celsius, and can be as low as minus 70.   If you turn off your car engine and leave it outside, the engine will freeze and you won’t move it until Spring, mobile phones don’t work outside and if you were to be foolish enough to touch anything with your bare skin, you may well lose a finger or two. 

But I swear that Yakutsk wasn’t as cold as it has been at times this week here in school.  The cold snap, whilst forecast, has certainly come as a shock to the system this week and, as I have explained in my letter sent to all parents this week, we have found ourselves in the position of reacting to events rather than planning for them.  That is never a good position to be in and I hope that the changes made towards the end of the week will have made things more comfortable for students and reassured parents too. Thank you for support with this. 

Despite the cold snap, the students have responded with resilience and toughness this week.  As I told the students in Years 9 and 10 this week, the easiest thing to do on mornings like we have seen this week, is to turn over again in bed and give in to a sniffle.  But our students are tougher than that and I was delighted to see such high levels of attendance this week, with no discernible difference to the norm. 

One of the things we have spoken to Key Stage 4 students about recently is the importance of the choices that we make when we are young, for they undoubtedly inform the choices we will be able to make when we are older. 

Choosing to attend school, be punctual and work hard is not easy; it is hard.  But it is worth it for the options it opens for us in later life and the choices it presents us when we become adults.  To demonstrate this, we played the Marshmallow Experiment video clip, which I have shared with you before.  This explores the concept of Deferred Gratification – whereby those people who can resist immediate gratification are the people who demonstrate the most success in life.  We see this in sports – those people who sacrifice time and energy to train to become great athletes; we see it in the arts – those people who nurture a talent through deliberate practice to master a musical instrument or dancing or other forms of art.  And we can see it in other walks of life, where the effort we expend in studying hard, revising and practising enables us to perform well in our exams, and in our careers. 

I am an occasional runner and sometimes people ask me where my motivation comes from, to which I reply that I don’t have any motivation to run.  I hate it.  It hurts.  But I have just about enough discipline to get my trainers on and go for a run from time to time.  I do not have as much discipline as many others who run further and faster.  But I understand that if I were to rely on motivation, I will never go running.  Discipline is what is needed.  And that is what we also tell our students.  It is important. 

Whilst sitting in my office one night after school this week, I heard the sound of Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody drifting from a nearby classroom.  It was the sound of some of our musicians rehearsing for the Christmas Concert where they will perform at the All Saints Church in Hessle in December.  Suddenly, we have gone from mid-Autumn to Christmas.  This time of year often catches me out – I have agreed to put our tree up next weekend, even though it only seems a few weeks since we put it away! 

Needless to say, our weekends are now given over to planning for Christmas, seeing friends, shopping and planning.  Although tonight we are planning to watch Blitz – a new movie just released on Apple TV.  Parts of this were filmed in Hull in 2023 and my daughter was enlisted into the cast as an extra in the scenes filmed in Paragon Station.  So we will be watching keenly hoping that she appears on screen – her first movie role! 

Whatever you are doing this weekend, stay warm and dry and thank you for your ongoing support.   

Mr Groak

Headteacher

I write this between appointments at our Sixth Form Parents Evening event.   

I teach Business Studies to Year 13 students only and so this is the first opportunity for me to meet the parents of this year’s group of students.  So far, I have met warm, friendly and passionately supportive parents willing to do whatever they can to support their child in the final year of their compulsory education.  This brings a responsibility to myself, and Mrs Smith, my co-teacher in the subject, to ensure that we provide meaningful information and helpful advice and suggestions on how they can help their child to improve and develop. 

But parents’ evenings present perennial dilemmas for all schools and the following questions are ones we ask ourselves every year as we try to promote cooperation and engagement: 

• How do we persuade parents/carers to attend? 

• How do we ensure staff have the energy, after five hours of teaching, to sit through three hours of non-stop discussion with parents? 

• Some of our staff teach over a hundred students in each year group.  How do we schedule appointments for these without extending the event until midnight? 

• How do we train staff to have meaningful conversations within a five-minute slot? 

• How do we handle parents who expect and demand more time with some staff? 

• How do we support parents with limited understanding of the education system, to support their child effectively? 

Each parents’ evening interaction has the potential, even in five minutes, to be magical, the catalyst for further communication and the unlocking of support that genuinely makes a difference.  Many, of course, serve to reinforce what is already well understood on all sides, namely that the majority of students are doing just fine and need only to keep going.  It is the small minority where, for a multitude of reasons, a student has lost their way, has become disengaged and cannot be reached by teacher or parent.  That is where the collaboration really needs to work, which always takes more than five minutes. 

Some of my funniest and frustrating memories are of parents’ evenings, such as the time when a parent, who looked familiar, turned up.  She didn’t have an appointment and, although I recognised her, I couldn’t remember her child’s name.  After a moment of bland pleasantries, I gave up and asked the name of her child which she gave me.  “But Tommy left school last year!” I told her. 

“I know he did,” she said, “but I just wanted to come and let you know how he was getting on and to say ‘hello’”.  Lovely, but crackers. 

There was also the occasion, very early in my career, when I first met the dad of a student that had been giving me a real run around for weeks.  Nothing I tried could persuade this lad to behave for me, or to take any interest in learning about business’ liquidity ratio.  So I was delighted when dad turned up and I spent five minutes explaining how his son needed to get to my lessons on time, follow my instructions, do his homework, not mess about, not be rude and so on.   

“Well, if you can get him to do all that, Mr Groak,” he said, “then you’re a better man than me, ‘cos I’ve given up on the little bugger!” 

One of the worst nightmares for a teacher is when a parent arrives with child and sits down - and you don’t know the name of the child.  As stated before, if you are a teacher of PE, RE, DT etc then you might teach many hundreds of children, and it can take all year to remember their names.  So this situation is always difficult and prone to embarrassment.  I always advise staff to be open and to ask for the student name; much better than guessing and then spending five minutes talking about a different child.  You can imagine how problematic that could be! 

My thanks to the parents and carers of our Sixth Form students for attending and hope the evening was a productive one. 

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It has been a nice and calm start to the new half term.  Thankfully the weather is fine and dry at the moment and so the field remains open for the students at unstructured time which always helps with school management.   

The continued high levels of attendance are also bearing fruit.  When students attend regularly, they make better progress, but it also leads to greater consistency in behaviour and relationships between peers.  I thank you for your ongoing support which has led to a 2.5% increase in our overall attendances this year, compared to last year. 

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Finally, this is a busy weekend for my family as we are heading down to Surrey for a family birthday party.  Weekends away are quite rare in term time and, although it will be nice to get away, I will be taking my laptop with me as there is no way that I can avoid having to do a couple of hours work setting up for next week.  I will do that on Saturday morning after a run along the River Thames in Surrey, which is always a joy.   

Whatever you are doing this weekend, enjoy it and thank you for your ongoing support.   

Mr Groak

Headteacher

Three weeks ago, I asked parents to complete a short survey to give us feedback on the school-to-home communication methods that we use.  Over three hundred of you replied across all year groups, giving us a nice cross section of opinion. 

It was clear that there are some elements of our current communication strategy that most of you are happy with, and some that you are not.  And there are others where opinions ‘divide the room’.  Some of you, for example, enjoy my weekly ramblings about Hull FC, my family activities and Bruce Springsteen - and some of you hate it and wish I’d stick to talking about the students in our school!  I know that I will never please everyone but the views are noted and I shall ensure that coverage of our students in school is never lost as my main focus. 

What also came through is that some of our communication could be packaged more effectively, sent in a different format and targeted better.  For that reason, after half term, we will be introducing The Eagle – a year-group newsletter. 

The Eagles is named for The Golden Eagle which was the name of the Hessle High School yearbook when it was published in the 1950s and 1960s.  The modern-day iteration will be digitally produced and sent by email with a text message link. 

Each edition will arrive half termly and will focus on the activity in each year group, therefore there will be five sent out each time.  This will allow you to find the curriculum information and extra-curricular news more easily for your child.  There will still be links available for all other year groups if you wish to peruse those too. 

The Eagle will also incorporate the Head of Year Blog meaning that this will be sent less often but will introduce, and seek to capture the theme of, each newsletter. 

We, as ever, are indebted to our staff for providing the content for this and to one of our ex-students, Amy Harrington, who is currently our Digital Media Officer, who will be designing and putting the newsletter together. 

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This week, we have asked all our tutors to communicate with parents/carers.  This may have been by telephone or email.  In the case of Year 7, we invited you into school to meet in person.  I have been delighted with the levels of engagement and the feedback from families.  I know that, in the busy school environment, we do not shine sufficient light on those students who do the right thing every day in school; they attend, work hard and model our school values.  This was an attempt to put that tight and to let families know that their child’s diligence is recognised.  As ever, your feedback on this event is greatly appreciated. 

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Attendance to school remains a real positive theme at the start of the new year.  On average, this is 2.5% higher this year than it was at the same time last year and almost now in line with our pre-Covid average.  We know that the best place for children to be each day, is in school and we are already seeing even better behaviour and progress due to the continuity of attendance.  Thank you, as always, for your support with this. 

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And so, this weekend, I will be spending most of my time with my son, as my daughter and wife are heading to Birmingham to see Becky Hill in concert.  Not really our cup of tea, so we shall we be watching sport and probably cooking up some good food.  And hopefully enjoying some more sunshine! 

Whatever you are doing, enjoy it and thanks again for your support.

Mr Groak

Headteacher