It has been a tough season for Hull FC in 2024 but last week, at the Club’s End of Season Awards event, forward Jordan Lane won the Player of the Year Award.  A worthy recipient after playing almost every game in a multitude of positions, topping the tackle count and even finishing the season kicking the goals. 

I have followed Jordan’s career closely as he is an ex-Hessle High School student.  As is Brad Fash, who won the same award last season and who has become something of a household name due to his eye catching ‘mullet’ hairdo. 

Brad and Jordan left Hessle over a decade ago now and have enjoyed successful careers, playing regularly in Super League.  The third member of the trio from that era is Jez Litten, who also started at Hull FC but who is now a regular at Hull KR.   Arguably, Jez has enjoyed even greater individual success, playing (and scoring) at Wembley in 2023 and also being capped for England in 2023, as well as being named in the international squad for this Autumn’s international series against Samoa.  Another ex-student, Zeus Silk, is also currently playing in the Championship with Featherstone FC. 

All the school staff are very proud of what these guys have achieved with their careers to date and hope that they can continue to sustain their playing careers for as long as possible, before finding fruitful post-playing careers too.   

Whilst these have been the most successful for a long time, there is not a year that goes by that does not see a number of our boys chosen as part of the scholarship or academy programmes at either of our two professional clubs. 

At this time, we currently have James Tann and Harrison Turner on the Hull FC Under 16 Scholarship programme and Harry Moore and Riley Dunn on the Hull KR scholarship. 

Recent ex-students, Owen Briggs and Kirils Prigorkins, are both also on the Hull FC Academy roster.   

Naturally, we have many other youngsters who are pursuing their sporting and artistic dreams whilst studying at our school.  They are the very best representation of our school values of resilience and aspiration, and we are very proud of them. 

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Last week, I mentioned the upcoming post-16 Open Evenings to be held on our two 6th Form Campuses at Wolfreton and Hessle.  Next week, all Year 11 students will be given more information about these events in school assemblies.   

We also have a significant surprise for all prospective students too, which will be revealed in the Assembly.   

If your son or daughter is currently in Year 11, please come along to either or both Open Evenings on the 10th October (Wolfreton) and 15th October (Hessle) to find out more about our joint offer. 

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We have over 250 of our students arriving each day on one of our school buses.  These are all scheduled to arrive on the school site by 8.20am.  However, due to the patterns of usage and heavy traffic, they have frequently arrived on site later than this, causing disruption to the start of the school day.  No student that arrives on a school bus is marked late. 

However, to address this I wrote to you earlier this week with new timetables which will take effect from Monday 7th October; this will see earlier departures by up to 10 minutes.  Please check the times carefully and ensure that your child is at the stop in good time to catch the bus.  Thank you.   

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Finally, today marks the start of Hull Fair.  Whether you love it or hate it, it is here for the next ten days.  My son has almost grown out of what the fair has to offer and is now more interested in how his money could be spent on something else, whereas my daughter is of the age where it is unthinkable not to go to the fair.  So, at some stage over the next two weekends, we will be making our pilgrimage and hoping for reasonable weather. 

Whatever you are doing and whether you will visit the fair or not, have a lovely weekend and thank you once more for your enduring support. 

Mr Groak

Headteacher