1. No category

Meet the young
entreprenuers
of our
generation
Principal
talks about
the future
for Barnsley
Mr Bowen
Page 3
Christmas Market
Page 4
Education
and business
working
together
Partnerships
Issue 10
Pages 10 & 11
Winter 2014/15
Artists impression of the new 6th Form College.
Barnsley town centre
is a real education
hub. This will have
a real impact on the
economy and culture
of Barnsley and that
is what excites me
about the town.
Nick Bowen,
Principal of Horizon Community College.
www.horizoncc.co.uk
email: [email protected]
[email protected]
2 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
From the Editor
As we enter 2015, Horizon has an incredible
amount to look forward to. The past two
years have been amazing and that is proven
with our ‘Good’ Ofsted judgement and
fantastic exam results. As we begin our
journey to become ‘Outstanding’, I have a firm
belief that Horizon is already at that standard.
We are at the forefront of school
publications not just regionally,
but nationally.
Once again, I hope you
enjoy our efforts.
I am currently reading
The Book Thief by
Markus Zusak.
Thanks
Mr Addy
Your Letters
Get involved in a Guinness
World Record attempt!
Candyland
wonderland
Dear Mrs Martin, Miss Hunt and
Miss Kerr,
What a fabulous evening my family and I had last night! As you said,
all the children were amazing and
have worked extremely hard, as
have you! I know it can seem relentless at times.
Why wouldn’t you send your children to Horizon CC.
Our daughters were a part of the
evening and have lived and
breathed it for weeks; Grace
Mitchell (8H) helped with the
refreshments
throughout
the
evening and Sally Mitchell (7J)
danced her heart out. We’ll dine out
on it as a family for some time. It’s
wonderful the confidence and team
spirit that a production like this creates.
Wonderful work, yet again, from
you all. Now for round two this
evening!
Kind Regards,
Mrs Sarah Mitchell
UK Older
People’s
Day
On behalf of the Older People’s Day
planning group, I would like to
take this opportunity to say a
heartfelt ‘thank you’ to staff and
pupils for their recent gift of time,
energy and enthusiastic support to
this annual event. The success of
the event is, in part, a reflection of
the dedication the college displays
on a continual basis; quite simply,
we couldn’t have done it without
you.
Best wishes
Bern Johnson, Services Manager.
SignHealth, a healthcare charity for deaf
children and adults would like people to join in with learning a song
in British Sign Language and
signing it to raise money for
their work.
If you’d like to know more
about how you can take part,
please email Mrs Collinson on
[email protected]
OR
Rehearsals take place on
Wednesday 14, 21 and 28 January.
The event to be held on Wednesday
4 February 2015.
It’s open to all students and staff!
Teaching & Learning Festival
with BTSA
Save the date for this years Teaching & Learning
Festival with BTSA Monday 13 April 2015!
Booking for the event will be open mid
January.
The festival from last year was a great success.
Please see some of the footage featuring highlights from
the day with over 350 guests.
Watch the video which has been put together by
Aperture Advertising students from Horizon Community
College at www.barnsleytsa.net
email: [email protected]
Mr Robson pictured with the
Trinity Buzz news team who have
just completed their second edition
of Holy Trinity school’s newspaper.
A special thank you must go to Miss
Pease for making it all happen.
Children In Need –
Non Uniform Day
We have raised £1,686.52
in donations for
Children In Need
which is brilliant!
A message from
The Horizon College
Library Team
The Horizon Library Team would
like to say a big thank you to all
those students who have handed
in their overdue books back into
the library.
However, there are some books
that still need to be returned. We
would like to use this opportunity
through our Horizon newspaper to
ask that any overdue books be
returned before Christmas.
Our plea is to parents or
guardians of any students with
overdue books to help ensure they
are returned so other students may
enjoy them in 2015.
If you have any questions or
queries on this matter please phone
Ms West on 01226 704230.
Become
ACE at your
craft skills
Are you free on a Wednesday afternoon between 2.15 and 4.30pm.
Would you like to join us for a chat
and opportunity to develop craft
skills? Then come along to our community ACE club!
The ACE club is an intergenerational group where all ages enjoy
making craft items for themselves at
a small cost or to sell at one of our
craft fayres. Hope to see you there!
Kingpins Nursery has moved
The Horizon Nursery,
Shaw Lane, Barnsley S70 6EP
New Name & Address:
For further details :
01226 207158 • www.horizoncc.co.uk
WINTER 2014/15 Issue 10 The Horizon – 3
Adrianna Darlow 9R interview
Second term report
Barnsley
I came here to Barnsley because I had
already been a Headteacher for 10
years elsewhere where my role was to
work in the school and make that
school as good as it could be.
In a way, it was almost as if it didn’t
matter about the wider community
and what was happening elsewhere
as long as I completed my role.
What I wanted to achieve coming to
Barnsley was not only make Horizon
Community College an outstanding
school, but for our success to have a
massive impact on the rest of
Barnsley.
We work very closely with our partner primary schools and all the other
headteachers in the area so that we
become successful together and not
just a single school doing well.
Having community in our title was
very important when we first opened
and we don’t just want to pay lip service to that. Community really means
community and I don’t think anyone
could have missed the amount of
work we do in the area.
I’m also Vice Chairman of
Governors at Barnsley College and
they are building a brand new sixth
form facility in the centre of town
which I’m involved with.
I think Horizon and all school leaders can play a pivotal part in making
sure that Barnsley can regenerate
itself and I believe it has a very bright
future. Physically, if you look at large
parts of the town centre, it has had a
facelift and looks great. Barnsley is a
real education town and we have
great primary schools, secondary
schools and an outstanding college.
We even have a university campus in
the town and when walking around
Barnsley, you see a vibrant student
population and I am very proud that a
lot of them are wearing green blazers.
The education students are receiving will have a knock-on effect in the
future in terms of young people with
enterprise and entrepreneurial skills
as well as a real can-do attitude. This
will have a real impact on the economy and culture of Barnsley and that is
what excites me about the town.
Primary Schools
It is absolutely vital that we have positive relationships with primary
schools.
I take my hat off to primary school
teachers because by the time students
come to us in Year 7, students have
made huge progress for us to continue. Many of our primary schools are
good or outstanding so it isn’t just the
students’ knowledge in terms of subject, but it is their independent skills
and learning skills that are really
impressive.
The more we work with our primary partners to know what they are
doing and the quality of work which is
being completed, the more we can
ensure that continues from the very
first day of their schooling at Horizon
in July.
It also works the other way with primary school teachers coming to us
and seeing how we do certain things.
We are seeing a number of teachers
wanting to come in because an
increasing number of their students
are achieving higher levels and they
need that guidance with those high
achievers.
Both primary and secondary are
two massively important phases in
education with no phase being more
important than the other and the
closer our relationship can be, the
better it is for all of our students. We
are all like a family of schools with the
interest of our students and Barnsley
at heart, so the more we work together, the better.
happen and we thought it was our
duty to bring it on to our campus and
make sure that that service continued.
We will now use the Horizon
Innovation and Enterprise Centre to
house Horizon Nursery which is
located just off of Shaw Lane. There is
plenty of parking, we have a huge outdoor play area and a modern building. The facility has been refurbished
to bring the best facilities and make
sure it is the spec that we desire.
The nursery has huge benefits for
the town centre, but also for our staff
who have young children. It also
offers opportunities for our students
who may study a vocation in that area
and require work experience to put
themselves above other students who
study it elsewhere.
Candyland
Horizon Nursery
Horizon Community College are a
secondary school and you might
wonder why we need a nursery on our
premises.
The answer simply is that there is a
demand out there for nursery places.
As a school, I feel we have a responsibility to our community to provide
this service. We already had a nursery
which was created at a previous
school called The Kingpins Nursery
but the area of land it was on is now
being developed for housing. It looked
like the nursery may have to come to
an end but we did not want that to
Community Event
Pie & Peas, oh yes please!
By Sara Dickinson Family
Engagement Coordinator
On Thursday 27 November
Horizon Community College
hosted its first Community
Social Event.
It is fair to say that the
evening was a roaring success
with students, family members,
local community groups and
leaders enjoying the Pie and Pea
Supper, quiz and good old fashioned beetle drive. It certainly
brought out the competitive
side of one or two people!
Whilst we are proud of the
progress and success achieved
so far, it is clear that there is
more to be done and the aim of
the social event was to open up
the College to all and begin to
create a true feeling of community here at Horizon. Moving
forward, we would like to offer
more opportunities to anyone
who may wish to be involved in
a social committee, creating
support groups, fundraising
opportunities and future social
events.
Those who attended the
recent event have come up with
a wealth of ideas and suggestions, but we would like to
extend the offer those of you
who were unable to attend. If
you have any thoughts or suggestions, please do not hesitate
to contact us.
Coming soon... Horizon’s Big
Fat Quiz of the Year!
Mr Bowen, Principal
Horizon Community College
Candyland was absolutely fantastic.
What surprises me is the ability for
pure dance to hold your attention for
two whole hours.
I came with my family and we had a
great time. For young children to be
on the edge of their seats and be riveted for the whole duration, that speaks
volumes about the success of the
show. The other thing I loved about it
was the combination of elite dancing
and the inclusivity of the show. Over
200 dancers were there and anyone
who takes part in dance within the
college, had the opportunity to play a
role in the show no matter what their
Adrianna Darlow 9R
interview with Nick Bowen
comments on the Pie & Pea night
When Horizon first opened, we were
in no doubt that our students and
staff would engage in the process.
This was an almost instantaneous
transition with the students adapting
phenomenally to their new surroundings. We have always collaborated with
a number of community groups.
Having our own Community Enterprise department ensures there is a
huge amount of work going on in our
area. However, there was a vital group
of people who we had not engaged
with – our parents.
We are now putting extra effort in to
get them involved. We are encouraging
them to visit Horizon so that they can
see what we are doing and what we are
all about.
We want them to experience it rather
than just read about it, or hear about it
ability. You could see on the faces of
the students and the audience how
much they enjoyed it and I have been
inundated with emails from parents
and visitors to say what a great time
they had.
From my point of view, whatever
we put on in the college, I want it to be
real quality and be something which
the community can come and enjoy. I
want people to realise that Horizon is
so much more than a school and productions like Candyland allow this to
happen.
Final thoughts
I am really excited about what we are
doing here at Horizon and I also love
my job. I love coming to work because
even though it hasn’t always been
easy, I have to keep reminding myself
and staff that we have only been
doing this for two years.
Already, the progress that we have
made is a great thing. 80 more young
people each year are now going on to
college to study Level 3 qualifications.
That is 80 more young people than
before because there are more students who are gaining the gold standard of five A* to C GCSEs including
English and Maths.
That really excites me because if
that is what we can achieve in two
years, imagine what we can achieve in
five years or 10 years. The prospects
that we have here at Horizon are endless.”
from their children. Every little thing
makes a difference, and the idea of
having a pie and peas supper for the
community, so that they could come
into the college and meet our staff, was
great.
The more we can engage with our
community and the parents of our students, the better. We have recently
made it clear that parents can email
members of staff here at the school.
Our emails aren’t a secret and they can
email any member of staff if they have
any concerns or need a response to
any queries.
I have found that last year our relationship with the wider community,
and in particular, our parents, is really
developing and becoming stronger.
At Horizon, the results are going
through the roof. Within two years we
have gained a Good Ofsted judgement
and have many opportunities for both
our students and parents to get
involved.
A ‘Beetle Drive’ was enjoyed by all at the pie and pea supper.
If you wish to contact us email [email protected] or see our website for further details www.horizoncc.co.uk
4 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
Horizon Community Christmas Market
Sunday 23 November was a very
special day for Horizon Community College as we hosted our
first Community Christmas
Market.
We had over 100 stalls that
included lots of primary schoolchildren from Summer Lane and
Burton Road, trading alongside
students competing in the ‘I
Know I Can’ business challenge,
to adults who regularly trade at
craft fairs. Mr Powell has been
delivering business workshops
where he has been working with
lots of primary school children to
create their very own businesses
for the Horizon Community
Christmas Market and also for the
children to trade in their own
Christmas Markets within their
own schools.
Mr Powell said,“It has been fantastic to work with the primary
schools and to showcase the
entrepreneurial skills of the children which we hope will continue
with them throughout their lives”.
Dan Jarvis MP said, “I think the
concepts great, there are hundreds of people here, it’s great to
see the children getting involved
with lots of entrepreneurial spirit
and it’s a brilliant initiative by
Horizon. I think that working
with the children in the primary
schools is fantastic, especially for
the children to be learning these
important enterprise skills.”
A big thank you to all of the
amazing primary school staff
who have supported the event
and to the parents and carers who
have really got behind this fantastic project.
This will continue this year and
we hope to work with even more
primary schools!
Students and Teachers from Burton Road Primary School Comments
Class 9
Daniel – We learned how to be
more confident when talking to
people.
Aiden – It was a great experience
for us to learn how to run your
own business and what skills
you need.
Nathan – It was really fun taking
part and I ran my own business
by myself and I made real money.
Helen and Grace – I loved doing
it as we learned how to work as a
team and also we could share
ideas with everybody else. The
project gave us a lot of experience for when we are older and
we are a lot more confident at
dealing with the public and customers. It will also help me when
I am older with all of the skills I
have learned. Counting the
money was my skill and this has
really helped my mathematics in
school.
Freya – I wasn’t very confident
before this but I am now really
confident and have new skills.
We didn’t just stay behind our
what we have done and we had a
brilliant day, it was really worth
using our weekend.
Alex – Our gross profit was £100,
it was great at Horizon and the
experience was brilliant. We had
to solve problems, be better at
maths, listen to everybody and
use the business skills we have
learned. I’m really looking forward to going to Horizon next
year.
Alicia – It was a fabulous opportunity for me because I learned
business skills like teamwork,
confidence and how to run a
business. When I am older I
want to run my own business
from this as I have enjoyed it
very much. Thank you Mr Powell
and Mr Robson.
Caitlin – It was a great opportunity and I have really enjoyed
Mrs Conway’s Class
taking part. Mr Powell and Mr
Nathan – In our business we Robson were really kind and
made £49.56 gross profit. It gave helped us create our own busime a lot of confidence and made ness.
us become better friends by Nathan – I enjoyed going round
learning more teamwork. All of with my puppets to tell people
our group are really proud of about my business. At first I was
stall, we went around advertising our stall to people which
really helped us and my maths is
much better.
Emmerson – I have learned more
communication skills and have
really enjoyed taking part.
Teacher – It has been absolutely
amazing and the children have
got so much from the project.
They have learned to work well
together; they have come up
with some fantastic ideas and
learned about profit, loss and
the real world of business. All of
the children are real budding
entrepreneurs. We have done
something like this in the past
but this has taken the children a
big step further, especially trading to the public at Horizon
Community College.
really nervous
at talking to
people and I
came
away
confident
in
myself of what I
achieved and it makes me feel
that I want to be a businessman.
Kaiya and Freya – I enjoyed it at
the fair and made £60.50 profit. I
learned how to work in a team
and run a business and enjoyed
setting up our stall.
Mrs Conway – The children first
had to pitch to Mr Powell and Mr
Robson and it really brought in
lots of skills from the wider curriculum such as having to present, make a pitch and also work
independently as the students
were really responsible for the
project themselves. They came
up with the ideas, they’ve
shaped them and they took control of the project, we have just
been there to facilitate. It was
well worth the weekend commitment and it has been a fantastic project for us to be
involved in.
WINTER 2014/15 Issue 10 The Horizon – 5
Grace, Author of ‘ The Huskar Disaster’.
Maths Challenge – Burton Road PS students with teacher Mrs Brookes,
headteacher Mr Harris and Year 7 students.
Christmas Market ‘Enterprise Challenge’ display by Burton Road PS students.
See article on page 4.
Burton Road Primary School
Huskar disaster of July 1838
that changed the mining law
By Grace, Year 6, Age 10.
On the 4 July 1838 a terrible
disaster occurred that
changed British Law.
The disaster occurred at
Silkstone Colliery, a small village in Barnsley. Forty children and several miners were
trapped underground and
over half of the children died.
It started as a bright beautiful day. The miners got up
at 5am ready to go down the
mine and start their work.
Around midday a violent
storm raged above the
Huskar mine, the rain was so
heavy it flooded all the nearby streams! The rain put out
the boiler fire which meant
The memorial to the disaster at Silkstone.
that the lift wasn’t working so
forty children from the age of
7 to 17 years old and several
men were trapped underground.
A while later they got a
message to wait at the pit
bottom. They didn’t think
that they would have to wait
for long. Suddenly they
heard a big clap of thunder
but mistook it as an explosion in the mine!
After waiting for 9 hours
the children started to beg to
be let out. So they started to
make their own way out even
though they were urged not
to by the older miners. They
started to walk along the drift
in Nabbs Wood.
They were nearly half way
through the drift when a
huge gush of water swept
them off their feet. The water
came from a nearby flooded
river that had burst its banks.
The children were trying to
escape but it was no use,
only fourteen of them survived, sadly twenty-six children died.
Because of that terrible
event the law was changed so
that women and children
under 10 years old were no
longer allowed to work in the
mines.
Photo courtesy of Paul Wilkinson.
Dodworth St John’s CE Primary School
New Barnsley based community
group starts maker space at
Horizon Community College
A new community group, set up by
Barnsley-based businessman Matt
Brailsford, finds its home right here
at Horizon. The group, Barnsley.IO,
is a not-for-profit community group
aimed at bringing together people
with a common interest in electronics, woodwork, craft and all manner
of hands-on learning and doing.
Matt tells us, ‘I am a keen tinkerer,
loving anything to do with woodwork
and electronics, particularly playing
with Arduinos and Raspberry Pis
(small computers which are cheap
and easy to program).
facturing resources the town already
has? After all, Barnsley has a strong
heritage in crafts and engineering so
why not utilise these potential
resources.’
It was at that point that Matt got in
contact with us to see if we could
offer the group a space and access to
our newly fitted out DT department,
with all the kit any maker group
could possibly need. Straight away
we could see the huge potential that
such a group could bring to the local
community, be it just a place for people to come and spend their spare
time tinkering, or helping people find
Thirst for knowledge
new career avenues. The possibilities
I have always wanted to be able to really are endless.
have access to a space and equipNot straightforward
ment to assist my thirst for knowlWe knew having people using
edge and broaden my skills, whilst
having fun and meeting new people. machinery was not going to be your
I love the idea of the Fablabs that are straightforward community group,
dotted around the country and there but rather than just saying no at the
are many community led maker and first hurdle, we worked with Matt and
hacker groups all over, who have set our in-house Health and Safety team
up their own spaces, but there wasn’t to ensure that all relevant risks had
been assessed and that we could find
really anything in my local area.
‘Speaking with members at those a way to make the group happen. At
groups it was clear starting from the same time Matt was working hard
scratch would be an expensive to drum up interest for the group,
proposition, however after dis- holding regular social meet ups in
cussing the idea with Tracey Johnson Barnsley’s Old Number 7 pub, as well
at Barnsley Council, we thought why as attending local and national
not create more of a virtual maker maker events to help spread the
space and pool together the manu- word.
On Tuesday 27 October Barnsley.IO
held their first meet up here at
Horizon and it was a great success,
with a packed out room and even
interest from the local paper, the
Barnsley Chronicle.
Longer term goal
When asked what is next for the
group, Matt goes on to say ‘Whilst
this is certainly a big step forward for
our group, our longer term goal is to
reach out further and collaborate
with local manufacturing businesses
in the area, helping those businesses
show what is possible in and around
Barnsley, and maybe help them and
individuals find opportunities they
may not have found otherwise. Who
knows, the next great invention could
be found right here in Barnsley, all it
takes is the right environment to
allow ideas to grow!’
We are proud to be able to help
make a big difference to a community group and hope Barnsley.IO goes
from strength to strength and will
work with Matt and the group to
make sure it does. If you would like to
learn more about Barnsley.IO, or
attend one of the regular meet ups,
then you can visit their website at
http://barnsley.io or follow them on
twitter @barnsleyio or Facebook
h t t p s : / / w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m /
barnsleyio.
Christmas Market event at St John’s
Dodworth St Johns CE Primary Academy hosted their Christmas
Market where the Year 6 students were trading with their very own
businesses that were created with the help of Mr Powell in the Horizon
Business Enterprise project. Well done Year 6 as they really took on
board what they had learned from the workshops as the project
focused on independent learning where the students took total control
of the project and their teachers role was just to assist the companies.
6 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
Increase in
students
achieving
awards
continues
The IKIC Awards were introduced in October 2013 and
we have now celebrated our
students’ achievements on
four occasions.
It’s great to see an increase
in the number of students
achieving Awards – with parents and family supporting
them too.
We are very privileged to
have Patrons who are totally
committed to supporting the
Awards scheme and to raising the aspirations of our students. Patrons were originally only asked to commit to
this award scheme for one
year. However, they have all
agreed and want to continue
in their essential role supporting the awards. In fact
many of the patrons have
volunteered to extend their
roles and get more involved
in meeting and mentoring
our students, especially
those undertaking the Level 3
Message from…
Kate Winder
Year 7 pictured with their certificates.
Chair of Governors John Bostwick and IKIC Patron Ron Carbutt, pictured with Year 10.
The award
scheme is
definitely
making an
impact in
many ways…
Award where students are
required to show leadership
skills in either social or business enterprise.
The award scheme is definitely making an impact in
many ways: celebrating the
commitment of our students
participating in community
enterprise, whilst also helping others to recognise the
importance of thinking
about their future to ensure
they can build a real quality
Curriculum Vitae and make a
difference to how employable they are.
There have been a number
of developments to the IKIC
Awards since they were first
launched. They have become
an integral part of Horizon,
especially since the skills
card and community log
have been included in this
Year’s student planner.
Our next IKIC Celebration
Assembly
will
be
on
Wednesday 11 March. I hope
to see you there.
Student
Enterprise
Coordinator
for Year 9
You are always going
to have your Xbox’s
and PlayStations. You
will always have that
“next time” to meet up with friends. But
you won’t always have your school years,
and you definitely won’t always have the
IKIC awards.
I know that many people don’t know
what IKIC is. That maybe it’s a trick question and it can’t just be as easy as getting
involved and documenting your hours in
the community. But that is all you have to
do.
There is more available, but to earn
your levels you simply need to get
involved! We have dancers, cricketers,
footballers, hockey players, singers,
actors and even chess players. It all
counts and you don’t have to love or take
part in sport to earn it!
I know that everyone likes and dislikes
things, people and places so activities
should be no different. We all have a passion for something! So all we’re asking is
that you get it signed. The sheet currently in your planner only needs a signature
and the information written down. I get
that if you hand it to your coaches they
might laugh. But do it privately and be
consistent. It’s not that hard to do. No
matter how hard you tell yourself its nothing, in years to come you’ll wish you had
a time machine to return back to the year
2015.
Patron message…
Andrew Lodge
IKIC Patrons Marlene Crossland and Andrew Lodge pictured with Year 9.
Year 8 pictured with their certificates.
I am honoured to be one of Horizon’s I
Know I Can patrons.
I feel as if I am in a highly privileged
position, being able to recognise and celebrate young people’s community activities and personal achievements.
Horizon’s IKIC awards scheme is a
wonderful way of encouraging students
to display their enterprising, entrepreneurial skills, raise their aspirations, perhaps go out of their comfort zone, and
even lay the foundations (or a germ of an
idea) for a career in the future.
I am pleased to be able to do what I
can, to help the scheme continue to grow
and flourish. The meetings we have as
patrons, in tandem with Horizon staff, are
very informative and I would like to think
new things are borne out of those gettogethers that will help the IKIC scheme
get bigger and better.
I have seen at first hand just how motivated, passionate, determined and talented the IKIC entrants are, from those
students achieving their Level Ones right
through to the Special Award winners.
More power to your elbow is what I
say!
Stand out from the crowd… be the
best you can be… because you are all so
much more!
WINTER 2014/15 Issue 10 The Horizon – 7
Ellie is a ‘Young Superstar’
On Friday 14 November 2014 I was
invited to the Pride of Barnsley
awards at the Holiday Inn as I had
been shortlisted for the “Young
Superstar” award.
When I first found out I’d been
entered for an award, my first
thought was “why me?” I did not
want to go to this event as I feel I
hadn’t done anything that warranted an award. When I found out who I
was up against I was even more
reluctant to go as I thought that the
other nominees should have got the
award rather than me. One nominee
was the first ever Barnsley British
under 21 Speedway champion & the
other was a girl who not only helped
her dad when he collapsed but followed instructions while reassuring
her mum and calming her two
younger sisters at the same time.
I had been nominated for the
award because I had saved my family when my home caught at the end
of 2013.
When the day actually came I was
extremely nervous but by this time I
was actually excited to attend. My
category was first up and I was
extremely nervous. I was sat on a
table with a truly amazing man
called Ian Pratt who has motor neurone disease. There were so many
fantastic people at this event. When
they called my name out I really did
not know what to do! I had won the
award for “Young Superstar” I was
completely overwhelmed by everything. The best part was being given
the award by Stephanie Hirst and
Christa Ackroyd.
Leadership Team
report
Miss Vernon
Photo courtesy of the Barnsley Chronicle.
Ellie Taylor with her Proud of Barnsley award.
As we start a new year we have a chance
to reflect on what has been yet another
fantastic half term.
Students have been involved in a maths
puzzle day; we had representatives
involved with the fantastic remembrance
services; 35 students experienced university life by taking part in a robotic workshop; and every pupil has received their
first set of levels for all their subjects.
I want to give a special mention to 3 students. Lewis Smith and Sally Mitchell were
selected to read during the Remembrance
assemblies. They read with confidence to
all year groups, and were fantastic ambassadors on what must have been an
extremely nerve-racking occasion. I would
also like to say a big well done to Krizia
Firth for her Behaviour for Learning (BfL)
grade 1s in every subject – the only student to achieve this. I was also proud to
see a number of students involved in the
Christmas Fair.
Following the first data collection, we
now shift our focus onto pupil progress
and achievement. Students will have a
new focus in lessons to improve their current grades as they aim high to achieve
their end of year targets. This will give students a renewed energy for learning and a
thirst for more achievements in the future.
Students who visited Penistone Grammar School for STEM day.
STEM – An enjoyable way to
learn outside the classroom
By Joe Burton, 7I
On Monday 12 November a group of
Year 7 and Year 8 students went on a
journey.
First we all met at reception at
Horizon Community College. Once
everyone was ready we jumped in
the taxis and drove to Penistone
Grammar School for our STEM day
(science, technology, engineering
and maths).
Once all the other schools had
arrived we had a quick introduction
and then straight into the first activity. We were put on tables with other
schools; this was great as it gave us
the chance to make new friends.
The first activity was to make a car
that could drive on its own, using
elastic bands. The car that went the
furthest won – it was fun to work as a
team and everyone wanted to win.
Even though we didn’t win, the group
that did had two students from
Horizon (Jugers and Leonardo) so it
was still a victory!
The second activity was even better, we had to make a marble run.
The marble had to start on the table
and end up in a pot on the floor. The
team whose marble took the longest
to get in the pot won. This was really
hard as the ramp kept collapsing and
the marble was going too fast, but
working as a team we managed to
make one that took the marble 7 seconds to get in the pot – this wasn’t
bad!
The day had ended, time had gone
so fast, so we had to say bye to our
new friends and jump back in the
taxi to school. We all really enjoyed
the day, it allowed us to be more creative, work with different people, but
most of all have fun!
DIY robots led by expert
By Mr Brammer
Have you ever built a robot? Our
Year 7s have, and with the help of
international leading experts!
On Monday the 17 November,
students from Horizon were invited by the University of Sheffield’s
STEM Outreach programme to
attend a fantastic workshop, led
by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro
from Osaka University.
After being given a demonstration of some of the fabulous
robots that Professor Ishiguro and
his colleagues had brought with
them, our Year 7’s were given the
challenge of firstly building their
own robot, and then programming it! It’s safe to say that this
was not the easiest challenge ever
faced by our students, but they
persevered and it was not long
before our student’s robots were
roaming the floor!
The final task set for the Year 7’s
was to design their robot’s character using Lego. There was a huge
variety of characters, from aliens,
cars and even camels.
Big thanks must go to the STEM
Outreach team at the University
of Sheffield for giving our students this opportunity to work
with such expertise.
For more photos and information, visit Horizon’s facebook page
on www.facebook.com/horizonccbarnsley
Elastic powered car.
Members of Year 7 football team
helped the Barnsley Federation of
Tenants and Residents with a
hour-long litter pick.
Krizia Firth 7I receives her BFL
certificate from Principal Nick Bowen.
Community
Enterprise report
Mr Woodhouse
Year 7 have most definitely settled into life
at Horizon and they are beginning to take
up the opportunities offered to them
through community enterprise.
In October, the Enterprise bus visited
Horizon and student were given the
opportunity to find out what options may
be available in the future.
As mentioned in the last edition of the
Horizon, the accelerated reader programme is well under way and students
are embracing the extra chances to
improve their reading ages.
November saw the launch of the new
student governors. They are a group of
six students from the year who have all
put themselves forward to be the voices
of the school community. The group consists of Brandon Sidebottom, Nikola
Ruminska. Ethan Hepworth, Kiel Kilner,
Krizia Firth and Charlotte Murphy. The
Extended Leadership team of the college
will be looking to discuss items brought
up by the governors and hopefully by the
time of the next edition they will be able
to feed back some results.
In the coming year we are looking to
set up Sky Sports Living for Sport initiative again. Nicola Minichiello the 2009
World Bobsled Champion has been given
the task of working with Horizon on this
project so we are very much looking forward to working with her. We hope that
the coming year will be a great one in
Community Enterprise for Year 7 and
even more exciting opportunities will
arise.
8 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
Positive behaviour brings rewards
By Miss Dix
Sam Nixon pictured with volunteers from Age UK Barnsley.
Spectacular support
in aid of Age UK
On Tuesday 9 December Horizon
Community College hosted the Age
UK Barnsley Volunteer Awards.
We have supported Age UK for a
number of years and have built a
very strong relationship with the
organisation.
The event was to celebrate the
selfless work that the volunteers
provide to our elderly community
across the borough and there was
performances by Horizon students,
the Scolari Band and live music by
Barnsley’s very own musician and
TV celebrity Sam Nixon.
A big thank you to all of the
Horizon students and staff, Age UK
Barnsley staff, the Scolari band and
Sam Nixon that made this year’s
event spectacular.
Huge congratulations to the Year
8 students who participated in
last year’s ‘National Enterprise
Challenge’.
Over 120 students were selected
to take part in the enterprise activity. Students were chosen based on
their positive behaviour, so the top
ranked BFL students were rewarded with the chance to particpate in
the day-long activity.
Led by the BBC’s Young
Apprentice
winner,
Ashleigh
Porter-Exley, the project formed
part of the larger National
Enterprise Challenge competition,
which encourages young people to
develop skills such as leadership,
communication and teamwork.
A bit of product
development...
Students were given everything
they needed to design and create
their own bag business. Coming up
with a good design wasn’t enough –
participants had to develop a
brand identity for their product
and think about aspects such as
their target customer and marketing strategy.
Enjoyable maths challenge
By Kiel Kilner 7S
I’ve just had a maths lesson, it was
great, we had a man called Muffy
do our lesson. He let us do challenges instead of maths. Every
time we completed one, we got a
coin.
In the end whoever got the
most coins won the competition.
All the challenges weren’t easy to
complete successfully without a
few tries and lots of cooperation
from team-mates. We worked
in our tables with people we
wouldn’t usually work with. We
had a challenge where we had to
balance objects on a rocking
boat. We had ones where we
completed puzzles to reveal
coordinates and ones where we
used cogs to turn and reveal
things like coordinates. If you
were the ‘team monitor’ you
went to collect the challenges.
When you collected it, you
gave it to your team and you
would work together to complete it, trying to get as many
coins as you could.
University Challenge
for Year 11’s
Horizon CC Maths Department
took part in their first Senior Maths
Challenge in November, entering a
team of four.
Travelling to Leeds University’s
Grand Hall, the HCC students quickly realised they would have it tough,
being the only team made up of Year
11’s; all other teams made up of
Maths and Further Maths A Level
students from across the region.
Despite this, the HCC team gave
each round their full effort, working
their way through three 40 minute
rounds, competing in a puzzle, a
crossnumber and relay round.
The four students (Ellie Gough,
Carly Precious, Olivia Plotts, and
Makauley Barron) enjoyed their
evening, and gained some important experience of what is involved
to compete with the best at Maths
beyond GCSE. As always, they were a
credit to themselves, their year, and
the college, remaining focused,
motivated, and adapting a mature
approach to the evening throughout.
Winning team, ‘Wild’ celebrate as their names are announced.
Making the pitch!
Working in groups of six, those
that had created interesting products were then invited to pitch
their idea to a panel of judges.
From those groups, a winning
team was selected and we’re
delighted to announce that a Year 8
team, led by Charlotte Hollingworth, won the day! Having a created a company called Wild, the
team, made-up of Mandana
Mohsendohkt, Nathan Wilson,
Hannah Trevy, Ruby James and
Parish Trevy, developed a range of
colourful bags with beautiful
wildlife designs on them.
Wild find out they’ve won!
As winners, Wild will now be
invited to take part in the national
finals of the competition. These
will take place at Alton Towers in
July. The finals will also be attended by Dragon’s Den entrepreneur,
Theo Phaphitis.
This means the team has plenty
of time to keep developing their
idea further. We really can’t wait to
see how they’ll get on!
Academy
THE SIGNATURE
Invitation for Schools
We would like to offer you the opportunity to attend a free, one-day event at
Horizon Community College on Thursday 22nd January 2015, lunch provided.
Horizon will be hosting a Family Learning Academy Workshop to share
best practice in successful family engagement in schools and clusters
in England and Wales using the Family Learning Signature (FLS).
Again, places are completely free but we ask that you pre-book online
to guarantee your place. You can book online here:
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-signature-academy-in-barnsleytickets-13628133113
If you’d like further information then please do not hesitate to get in touch with
my colleague Joanna Rae on either 01224 643823 or [email protected]
Early illustration of Robert Holgate.
19th century
foundation
continues
to support
education
By Dave Kennedy,
Foundation Trustee
The Arch Bishop Holgate Foundation was established in 1888,
named after Arch Bishop Robert
Holgate who died in 1556.
The foundation has two aims;
one to permit the use of the land for
educational purposes and the second to provide financial commitment to the college. These purposes
aren’t provided by the local authority.
Last year it provided over £8,000
to Horizon for eight schemes.
For example, a Year 7 History
Workshop, that toured around local
primary schools. It supported 13
groups who took part in a business
challenge and also contributed
towards Horizons very own ‘I Know
I Can’ Awards.
This year it’s planning to provide
the college with another £7,500 for
further projects.
The foundation has now been
renamed to coincide with the newly
built college – The Horizon Arch
Bishop Holgate Foundation.
Want to be an
outstanding teacher?
The future of teaching in Yorkshire
has never looked brighter thanks to
12 very different schools who have
been brought together by Assistant
Principal
Chrissie Yates
of
Minsthorpe Community College, to
offer School Centred Initial Teacher
Training.
The Yorkshire Three Counties
Alliance School Centred Initial
Teacher Training offers graduates
who wish to train as teachers within the Yorkshire region the opportunity to undergo their training
whilst being totally immersed into
a school environment. What’s
more, the host school in which they
will be trained could be in a position to offer them a teaching post at
the end of the course!
The 12 very different schools
within the Yorkshire Three
Counties Alliance are Minsthorpe
Community College in Wakefield as
designated
lead;
Thornhill
Community Academy in Kirklees;
Silcoates Independent School in
Wakefield; Greenacre SEN school
with Kirk Balk Community College,
Horizon Community College,
Darton
College,
Netherwood
School and Holy Trinity School all
brand new state of the art academies in Barnsley; Ridgewood
Academy in Doncaster; Aston
Academy in Rotherham and The
Snaith School in the East Riding.
Successful applicants will have
bespoke training in their host
school with enhanced experiences
in a variety of placements in the
form of Post 16, SEN & Multi
Ethnicity that will be suitable to
their personalised needs and future
career aspirations ultimately experiencing what teaching & learning
is like in every aspect of twenty first
century schools.
Applications to take part in The Yorkshire Three counties Alliance SCITT
opened on 28th October, 2014 via the NCTL/UCAS website.
Send an email to [email protected]
or telephone 01977 657600 for more information.
WINTER 2014/15 Issue 10 The Horizon – 9
Ryman – inspiring students
By Charlotte Hollingworth, 8H
On Wednesday 12 November students, from Horizon Year 7 and
Year 8 took part in a competition
called the Ryman’s National
Enterprise Challenge.
This challenge aims to inspire
young people to use enterprising
skills to help them in everyday life.
Focusing on improving teamwork,
communication and leadership,
the challenge sees participants
create a brand and a product with
specifications to suit a design
brief. This year the challenge was
to create a bag that was not only
practical for school use but would
be aesthetically designed for
trendy target customers.
The teams arrived in the theatre, a tense boardroom-like
atmosphere, no-one knew what
our challenge was. There to reveal
all was Young Apprentice 2012
winner Ashleigh Porter-Exeley,
with our design brief. As well as
revealing our challenge, Ashleigh
also spoke about how good results
are not enough in interviews, how
we need to have enterprising skills
that make us stand out from other
candidates or participants, not
only when being interviewed for a
job but for other aspects of life
too.
The creation of our products
was done step by step. We firstly
brainstormed all the types of bag
that we could think of and annotated the pros and cons of these,
we then brainstormed hobbies
and interests of our team. This
helped us to create a clear image
of our product and helped us
understand the concept. By
understanding our product thoroughly we became more confident in pitching it to others. We
then created a business around
our product, working out prices
and profits, unique selling points
and how we would promote it.
With our products designed and
our teams in possession of all the
facts about their bag, we began
pitching to the judges...
Each team had to pitch their
product to the judges, and had to
explain each element in detail,
showing why theirs was the best,
why they should win. All of the
pitches were amazing and each
group had created their own
unique brand. There could only
be one winner – Team WILD!
Leadership Team
report
Mrs Robinson
Year 8 Student Govenors.
Student Governors – listening
to the concern of others
Last term, our Year 8 team of
Student Governors met twice to discuss important Horizon issues.
The Governors were chosen last
year; one student from each house
group was selected with the hope
that they would take on board the
concerns of their classmates, and
feedback and discuss when attending meetings. The Year 8 team is
made up of Joe Ryder, Keiron
Hanlon, Neve Stretton, James Lister,
Ellie Sanger, Amelia Driver, Millie
Schofield and Sofia Gregoriou.
It has been very encouraging to
see how the chosen students have
handled the task of debating impor-
tant school matters. Recent concerns they raised surrounded their
year group’s behaviour at dinnertimes.
However, having the opportunity
to discuss this and evaluate the
ongoing situation meant students
were able to come up with appropriate solutions to the matter.
There are a lot of issues that the
Student Governors would like to discuss but, more importantly, they
want to listen to other Year 8 students and do a great job representing them. There will be meetings at
least once every half term so keep an
eye out for further updates!
We have had a promising start to Year 8
and I’d like to thank all of our form tutors,
parents and the extended Year 8 team for
their ongoing support from September.
This term has been very productive
with all students receiving their first set of
grades. In carrying out analysis of this
data I am encouraged by the achievements of most students. Another set of
data will be issued next term with a
Consultation Evening calendared for the
Tuesday 10 March.
The accelerated reader programme
continues to play a key part in our tutor
actives and I would encourage all students to play an active part in this programme and read as much as possible.
We have had a range of successes outside the classroom ranging from both the
boys and girls football teams to the
recent dance show.
I am thoroughly delighted to see how
many Year 8 students have shown consideration for the elderly this Christmas
and worked together as forms to make
hampers. These will be distributed in the
local community just in time for
Christmas.
I would remind you that these stories
and others are available via the Year 8 tab
of the Horizon Community College webpage. I’d like to take this opportunity to
wish all Year 8 students and parents a
Happy New Year.
Big thank you for tickets
Enterprise Bus comes to Horizon. Below: Students taking advantage of the facilities.
Year 8 would like to say a big
thank you to Barnsley Football
Club who recently provided us
with 100 football tickets to the
Barnsley v Scunthorpe
game on Saturday 28
November.
We were able to offer the
tickets as rewards to our
highest achievement point
earners over a two week period. This meant that every student
had an equal opportunity to earn
as many points as possible over
the fortnight.
Achievement points are given
to students for a number of reasons but generally relate to good
behaviour and effort on the part
of the pupil.
As a result we were able
to award 16 students with
a set of four tickets for
earning 10 or more points
and pairs of tickets were
given to the 12 students
who had earned nine points.
This month we’ll be running a
similar rewards scheme, so to be
in with a chance they’ll really
need to get focused in class and
make progress and effort.
Year 8 Ali – the history boy
By Ali Khosravi, 8T
Elliot’s Cause
Do you watch the BBC’s One Show?
If so, you might have seen a familiar face...
Year 8’s very own Elliot Turton
(8H) appeared on the programme
to talk about a charity project he’s
been working on.
Elliot has been raising money
and awareness for ‘Caring Matters
Now’ a group that supports those
affected by a condition called
Congenital Melanocytic Naevi. The
condition affects a member of
Elliot’s family so it’s a cause close
to his heart. As part of the experience, Elliot got to meet the whole
One Show team, including Alex
Jones (see picture).
Keep up the good work Elliot –
Horizon College is very proud of
you!
Elliot Turton with the One Show’s
Alex Jones.
The following article has been written by Ali Khosravi, a Year 8 student.
Ali is very interested in History
and has recently set up a Year 7 and
Year 8 History Club, which takes
place on a Tuesday afternoon. As
part of his Level 3 IKIC Award, he has
undertaken some research into the
First World War. As a result, he has
been motivated into writing the following passage:
A hundred years ago in the past
century, a group of people sacrificed
their lives for us. They fought in a
violent atmosphere in order for us to
live in a peaceful, non-violent environment. They weren’t just defending British soil, they were fighting for
humanity.
Borders can be meaningless and
some of our fellow human beings
need to be reminded that morality
does not have a border. Some people
have forgotten that we are all
human, brothers side by side. This
poem by a famous Persian poet
explains:
Adam’s sons are body limbs, to say;
For they’re created of the same clay
Should one organ be troubled
by pain
Others would suffer severe strain
Thou, careless of people’s suffering
Deserve not the name
“human being”
Saadi Shirazi
In frightening, foggy and fatal battlefields, soldiers were shielded
behind the embankments with their
strongest weapon. This weapon was
hope. Hope of taking steps into
peace. When war showed its murderous face nearly every family lost
members. The smallest thing we can
do is to remember these soldiers forever.
Community
Enterprise report
Miss Dix
My first term with Year 8 students has
been very enjoyable and I am already
looking forward to spending the rest of
the academic year with them.
Year 8 students have continued to
embrace the spirit of community enterprise, with many of them completing their
Level 1, 2 and even Level 3 I Know I Can
Award. There are still lots of students
engaging in activities without realising
that this can contribute towards earning
their IKIC award. I’m hoping to encourage all these students to get their IKIC
booklets completed over the coming
term in preparation for the next awards
ceremony in March.
I am also looking forward to launching
the 2015 school show this year. Being
such an enterprising school it’s important
that we’re able to offer much more than a
traditional school production project
where students simply turn up to
rehearse and then perform. We want to
be able to give our students backstage
opportunities – teaching them stage
management and technical theatre skills,
letting them run their own box office and
plan and deliver a marketing strategy for
the show. There are endless opportunities for students to get involved in the
school production and I hope that many
Year 8 students will take up this chance.
10 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
Barnsley steel forms new Sixth Form campus
Building of the new Barnsley
Sixth Form College campus
on St Mary’s Place is well
underway, with the site due
to open in the 2015/16 academic year.
Barnsley manufactured
steel – made by Billington
Structures,
based
in
Wombwell – is forming the
frame of the new building,
which will provide a first class
learning environment for A
Level students from South
Yorkshire and beyond.Gerard
Garvey, Barnsley Sixth Form
College Principal, said: “This
new 21st century Sixth Form
College will show the young
people of Barnsley that they
deserve the best A Level provision and help future generations to realise their potential. This is a significant
investment in the education
of our young people and we
aim to provide them with the
skills they need to excel in
their A Levels, afterwards at
university and in their future
careers. This landmark project will also contribute to the
regeneration of Barnsley
town centre and improve the
gateway into Barnsley for the
benefit of residents, businesses and the wider community.”
Nick Bowen, Barnsley
College
Governor
and
Principal
of
Horizon
Community College, added:
“Young people in Barnsley
and the surrounding areas
are fortunate to have the
opportunity to progress on to
study at Barnsley Sixth Form
College and the state-of-theart facilities at the new campus
will
considerably
enhance the learning experience on offer. I view Barnsley
town centre as an education
hub with the Sixth Form,
Barnsley
College
and
University Campus Barnsley
all offering excellent learning
options.”
Take a virtual tour of
the
new
campus
at
www.youtube.co.uk/thebarnsleycollege
Building a new future for
Construction students
Located at the college’s
Honeywell campus, just next
to the Sports Village and
Think Low Carbon Centre,
the £10.9m Construction
Centre is set for completion
in the autumn of 2015. The
new centre will offer specialised
workshops
for
Construction students on
Further
and
Higher
Education courses and will
The foundations of
Sixth Form College
are started.
will provide them with the
skills they need to excel in
their current studies and in
the future.
New Year, new you?
Adult part-time courses
available
If you are planning to make
2015 the year you change
career or learn something
new, Barnsley College can
help. There are a range of
part-time courses starting in
January onwards, from Art to
Accounting,
Beauty
to
Engineering and Catering to
Management. Request a Parttime Course Guide by calling
01226 216 123 or email:
[email protected]
Did you know?*
bring together all construction trades in one place.
You can take a virtual tour
of the new building and see
other college videos at
www.youtube.co.uk/thebarnsleycollege
dents. These excellent facilities will help us guide our students and future generations
to realise their potential and
Barnsley College’s overall
learner success rate is 90% –
that’s 6% above the national
average.
94% of the college’s students
progressed to work or further study after completing
their course.
Barnsley College, Old Mill Lane.
A chance to find out more
If you would like to find out
more about the courses on
offer at Barnsley College
and get a taste of what college life is like, go along to
the Open Evening on
Thursday 15 January 2015,
from 6.00pm to 8.00pm.
You can also download a
course guide and see more
at www.barnsley.ac.uk or
call 01226 216 123. Follow
@barnsleycollege
on
Twitter or search ‘Barnsley
College’ on Facebook to
stay up-to-date.
Rahila Rafiq
College course:
A Levels in
Biology,
Chemistry,
Business and ICT
“Coming
to
Barnsley Sixth
Form College is the best decision
I’ve ever made. My tutors are amazing and the college is so easy to get
to. I plan to do Dentistry at university once I’ve finished my ‘A’ Levels
and college has helped me to get
onto a scheme with the University
of Sheffield to give me experience of
Jack
Jenkins
College course:
A Levels in Maths,
Physics and
Chemistry
“The teachers
are really good at
Barnsley Sixth Form College; they
push you to achieve your best and
I’ve learned a lot of things that I’ll be
able to take with me to help at university. I’m hoping to do a
Mechanical Engineering degree
once I complete my A Levels.”
Robyn Shaw
College course:
Level 3 Interactive
Media
“I ’m e n j oy i n g
everything about
my course and college life in general.
Media was always my favourite subject at school and I’d love to eventually teach the subject myself or
become a journalist.”
Other new developments
at Barnsley College
As well as the Sixth Form
College and Construction
Centre, Barnsley College has
seen other recent developments including the new £4m
Honeywell Sports Village
which opened its doors at the
start of this academic year, an
extension at Wigfield Farm in
Worsbrough where Animal
Management and Horticulture students are based,
and
a
new
Science,
Technology, Engineering and
Maths (STEM) Centre for
Engineering students. The
Sports Village, located on
Honeywell Lane, is also open
to the public who can use the
gym, sports hall and café
there.
These new sites are in addition to the college’s main
campus, Old Mill Lane, which
opened in 2011 and houses
industry-standard
equipment for students, including
recording studios, catering
kitchens, a simulated ward
and even an air cabin!
Barnsley College Principal
Colin Booth said: “There has
never been a more exciting
time for students to come to
the college. We have made
significant investments in
upgrading our facilities in
order to provide an outstanding, state-of-the-art learning
environment for all our stu-
Barnsley
Sixth
Form
College’s overall A Level pass
rate in 2014 was 97%, with a
100% pass rate in 14 subjects.
The college offers over 300
courses, from A Levels to
Apprenticeships, Vocational
courses to Part-time study.
*All statistics relate to 2012/13
academic year unless otherwise stated.
See what these former
Horizon Community College
students are doing now...
Aidan Speed
College course:
Level 3 Professional Cookery
“I learn something new every
day at college. It’s
really good being
able to use the equipment in the
kitchens and get restaurant experience.”
The new STEM site at Old Mill Lane.
Artists impression of the Sixth Form College.
Katie Telford
College course:
Level 2
Hairdressing
“I enjoy the
practical elements
of my course
alongside the theory. It’s a friendly environment here
at college and I like that everyone
can be themselves.”
Hannah
Elsworth
Honeywell Sports
Village that opened
in September 2014.
College Course:
Level 3 Travel and
Tourism
“I have really
developed since
starting my course;
the support of my tutors has totally
changed my way of working and I’m
now getting distinctions.”
Connor
Szabo
College course:
Level 3 Athlete
Development
Programme
“I enjoy learning
with my friends in
a relaxed environment at college.
My tutors are so knowledgeable and
easy to get on with; I’d definitely
recommend studying here. After I
finish my course I’m planning to go
on to the University of Lincoln to
study Sport and Exercise Science.”
WINTER 2014/15 Issue 10 The Horizon – 11
Simon Biltcliffe, Chief Executive
of print services agency Webmart.
The Barnsley Businesses
Inspiring Students venture,
the brainchild of Dodworthbased financial management
company Lifetime, continues
to make its mark.
Not only has the project
proved a great success here at
Horizon Community College,
but it is also being embraced
wholeheartedly by another
Barnsley secondary school,
Holy Trinity. Their first BBIS
speakers, Simon Biltcliffe and
Stuart Turner, wowed both students and teachers with their
inspirational stories!
Simon (pictured, courtesy of
Angus Thomas) is the chief
executive of highly successful
print services agency Webmart,
and he delivered his terrific talk
to Year 11s, while Stuart, who
owns sushisushi ltd, an innovative online business retailing
Japanese ingredients, spoke
and delivered a workshop to
Year 11 Hospitality students.
More and more top quality
speakers are also joining the
‘BBIS stable’ – and Horizon will
be looking to have regular ‘BBIS
bookings’ going into the New
Year.
One of the latest speakers is
Jane Robinson (pictured), the
co-founder of leading laser cutting and engraving firm Cutting
Technologies – more affectionately known as ‘Cut Tec’.
The company was launched
in 2003 and now turns over £3m
and employs 32 people at its
base in Barugh Green.
Jane is a regular in both the
national and regional media.
She has had her expert views on
matters such as the economy
and women in business featured in The Times, The
Guardian, The Daily Mail, BBC
5 Live, BBC News and ITV news.
She is an experienced speaker and was Highly Commended
in the Businessperson of the
Year category in Barnsley and
Rotherham
Chamber
of
Commerce’s 2012 awards and
won Manufacturing Businesswoman of the Year in the 2013
WiBA awards.
Earlier this year Jane was
made a Freewoman of the
Hallamshire
Company
of
Cutlers – a prestigious position
and a platform she plans to use
to promote the role of women
in manufacturing and encourage more girls into the industry.
She would like to talk to students about how you can be
successful in business without
following traditional academic
routes. She certainly would like
to talk about the opportunities
a career in manufacturing and
engineering can offer – ‘it’s not
all grease and grime!’
She feels really strongly about
the need to encourage more
girls into STEM careers.
Jane Robinson, co-founder of
Cutting Technologies.
Horizon – Working together with local businesses
On Tuesday 25 November the Magic
of the Musicals team went down to
Vortex to look round the premises
and to print their performance tshirts. Firstly, Carl (the owner of the
business) showed us how CAD
(Computer Aided Design) was used
to create the shapes and the typography which was later transferred
onto the stencils then printed onto
the final product. After this we cut
out the text which we later heatprinted onto the back of our t-shirts.
We were then shown some of the
colours and sizes from which we
chose a selection. After this we were
taken into the darkroom where the
screens are prepared. We were given a
tour of the main production room
which included a detailed explanation on how the machines such as the
carousel and the dryer work. We then
screen printed our designs onto our
t-shirts by hand, using a ‘squeegee’ to
apply a thin layer of paint through
the stencil onto our t-shirt.
Finally, we put the t-shirt through
the dryer, heat-printed the back on
and folded and bagged our completed t-shirts. We are very grateful to
Carl and all the team at Vortex who
were so incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and efficient at what they
do and very thankful for their
extremely kind donation of our fabulous t-shirts and for all their hard
work and time!
Vortex also provides Horizon
Community College’s school uniform.
Carl Firth, (right) owner of Vortex pictured with Horizon students.
Enterprising Young People (EYP) is a
European Regional Development funded
enterprise start-up project that identifies and
supports entrepreneurial young people (1424) to develop their business ideas into fully
fledged enterprises.
The project is part funded by the Yorkshire &
Humber ERDF programme Priority 3.
The team of Enterprise Champions work
directly with any young person within the borough of Barnsley to help them develop their
business ideas and potentially access a grant
of up to £2,000 to assist with start-up costs.
If you feel that any young people would benefit from this project then please contact the
team direct on 01226 787040 or via email at
[email protected]
Further information can be found on our
website www.enterprisingyoungpeople.co.uk
Horizon Community College
has been working in collaboration with the Barnsley Chronicle
since 2012, and their partnership produces the well respected
quarterly newspaper, ‘The
Horizon’.
As well as publishing their
own popular weekly paper every
Friday, the Barnsley Chronicle
also works closely with other
organisations, such as BMBC
and Barnsley Hospital, in
designing
and
producing
bespoke publications.
The Chronicle’s partnership
with Horizon College has been a
great success for all concerned,
and both parties enjoy a close
working relationship, from the
design and copy writing process,
right up the printing of the
newspaper.
Using the Chronicles distribution channels, the finished product enables Horizon College to
both engage with the local community, as well as giving them an
ideal platform to promote their
own on-site facilities and events.
Horizon Community College has
forged a close working relationship
with local security company, Doyle
Consultants, since the school first
opened its doors. In fact Doyle’s
have been best placed to take care
of HCC’s security needs as they
have been involved from the construction phase.
They now provide out of hours
monitoring via CCTV and attend in
order to investigate if ever there is an
alarm activation. In addition
Horizon’s Facilities Management
partners, Carillion Services, work
closely with Doyle management to
provide support during school
events to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience by visitors, especially when parking, as well as providing
night time ‘on site’ security as and
when required.
As an example of the very close
working relationship between the
two
organisations,
Doyle
Consultants have opened their
doors to Horizon students as part of
a “Boardroom experience”. They are
welcome to arrange a visit to the
company’s Head Office on Great
Cliffe Court in Dodworth in order to
see how a modern successful business operates.
Managing
Director,
Andrew
Nicholson, whose son is a student at
Horizon Community College, regularly attends and supports the
school’s career promotional events.
In fact he recently presented an
enlightening and motivational talk,
including a Q & A session, at one
such meeting. Andrew remarked “it
is an honour to work in partnership
with Horizon Community College,
our nearest educational neighbours,
alongside Carillion Services, in order
to support the local community,
especially students who, after all,
represent all our futures”.
These are only the latest in a series
of initiatives to support local young
talent, having actively providing
valuable work experience, leading to
permanent employment through
their apprenticeship scheme. For
example local youth Jake Starkey
spent his work experience period at
the company and so impressed the
management and staff with his hard
work, application and enthusiasm
that he is now an important member
of the office support team. He also
enjoys working as an Event Steward
and Licensed Supervisor at a number of local venues including
Horizon Community College, thus
Andrew Nicholson, Managing
Director of Doyle Consultants.
illustrating Doyle Consultants commitment to supporting their neighbouring educational organisations
and their students individually.
Jake commented: “Not only am I
learning new skills and techniques
each and every day, I’m always looking to build and strengthen my
knowledge of the security industry
by assisting every department where
ever I can to the best of my ability.
Looking to the future, I’m hopeful of
progressing into a higher level within the company, such as a head of
department or managerial role.”
Doyle management and staff look
forward to meeting more Horizon
students, at their local facility, who
have the same drive and enthusiasm
as Jake.
12 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
Creative Writers Club
Above and below: RE was the overall winning classroom, created by Miss Winterburn.
Across the Battlefield
Flood of Blood
The White Feather
Joe Sheldon Year 10
Ali Khosravi Year 8
Jake Richards Year 8
The bodies lay strewn and
splattered,
Upon the canvas of the reaper.
Tentative and shyly, keeping a
tenacious grip on the souls,
He walks along the battlefield and
claims the damned.
How can you talk about
independence
With absolute dependence?
I am no coward,
I am a hero. I fight for my family.
The white feather doesn’t affect me,
For I will never be the feather.
The feather fears me
as I’m not within it;
As I see the white feather,
it disappears.
He claims the actor upon the hill,
Acting a part for which the lines he
does not know,
Facing the curtain call,
Awaiting the final bow.
How can you think about
moderation
With absolute extremism?
He claims the undertaker,
Who found his work from death,
Who tastes the bittersweet
medicine
That is his own.
Outstanding creative displays
At the end of the Summer Term a
new competition was launched to
promote high quality displays and
learning environments.
The competition was judged on
how effective the area/classroom is
in the following:
Support learning
Promote independence
Promote the subject
Promote pride and excellence
in work
There were 2 awards:
Award for the best area/
department
Award for the best individual
classroom
Horizon staff really did excel to the
challenge. Those creative juices certain flowed! Staff spent time before
and after school and even some
weekends, to make an environment
that would welcome and support
learning.
History and RE won the award for
best area/department.
1st Prize Miss Winterburn (RE)
2nd Prize Miss Bell (RE)
3rd Prize Mrs Maxwell (History)
He claims the child of fourteen
years,
The one that came to fight for
queen and country,
No king ever knew him nor queen
recognised him;
He died in their name.
How can we fight for non-violence
With absolute violence?
How can you talk about rationality
With absolute immorality?
How can we hope to clean
the blood
With a flood of blood?
The gun shouts,
All around me are my
fellow friends,
Dead, all for a fight,
There it goes: the feather spiralling
up to heaven.
It’s all gone, my life,
it’s near the end. I see the end
Coming so quick; this may be it.
The feather falls; all goes down.
These are the men strewn across
the battlefield,
The sombre and the lost,
The ones that time will forget,
The ones that paid the final cost.
Chapter one:
Honey’s world
Eleanor Thornton Year 10
1st Prize Miss Winterburn.
Boulder
Shania Fearnley Year 10
Above and below: Miss Bell’s classroom gained 2nd prize.
Interform – Benchball Blast
We all like a little healthy competition and this is ever present
with the Year 9 Interform
Competitions.
During Thursday form times
all the Form groups have taken
part in the first interform competition of the year playing
Benchball.
Boys and girls combined skills,
tactics and guile to challenge and
overcome fellow Year 9 students
How can you write about
intelligence
With absolute negligence?
and their form teachers. Group
stages, knockouts, cheers, boos
and celebrations later Mr
Knowles, in his first year as a
Horizon teacher, and his 9T form
were victorious with the first win
of the year over the combined
forces of Mr Middleton and Mrs
Booth with their 9K form.
A great start and roll on the
next competition – a civilised
dodgeball competition!
Kristen Adams, a young woman living in Cityburgh, found her joy in art.
She would draw, paint, and sell the
images, bringing in small amounts of
income. Her mother helped a lot
financially, as she worked in the sales
department of a popular electronics
company named Pear.
By the side of her sofa was a small
table with two phones, both hers:
one black, one red. She turned on the
television and watched the woman
on the news.
“Yesterday evening on Angela
Street, a cleaner named Sara
Robertson fell at the edge of
Cityburgh Printing Office’s roof.
According to Robertson, she had
been tightly holding on, when the
masked vigilante, known to most of
us as ‘Boulder,’ appeared at the scene
and raised a rock platform to lower
Robertson to the ground safely.”
Kristen turned off the television
and sighed. Everything on the news
about the same sort of things, even
Boulder’s work from months ago. At
least it was positive, but it was repetitive.
That’s when she heard ringing. The
black phone on the table beside her
was ringing. She picked it up, flipped
it open and held it to her ear…
Finally she arrived. Honey had
walked to a place she called the
Wishing Field, a magical place that
stretched for miles and miles.
She didn’t even know if there was
an end to it. The grass here was
always soft, short and bright green...
but that’s not what made it magical.
It was the dandelion seeds that covered it. All across the field were dandelion clocks, ready for her to pluck
and make wishes off. Carefully, she
tiptoed into the field. Dandelion
seeds are very delicate and could be
blown away really easily; without all
the seeds the wish might not work.
So Honey always tiptoed her way
into and out of the field, watching
where she placed her feet. At the
heart of the Wishing Field, she
stopped.
She bent down and plucked a
dandelion, then stared at it, counting all the seeds. Perfect! No empty
spaces at all! “I wish... I wish...”
Honey began. The truth was that
she didn’t actually know what to
wish for. Honey had everything she
could ever want and everything she
needed.
The sun had begun to set and was
painting the sky orange. Honey
stood up slowly and sighed; she had
not found her answer. Then she
gently blew on the dandelion seeds
and sent them drifting up into the
sky, wondering where the wishes
went and who made them come
true. Sometimes she would spend
all day thinking about it... but it was
getting late. Finally, Honey turned
and began to tiptoe her way back
out of the Wishing Field.
Thanks for
supporting
Parklands
My name is Irene Clarke and
I am the activity worker at
Parklands Residential Care
Home for the Elderly.
Parklands is a lovely
friendly home that is personalised around the residents,
the manager and staff are
fantastic and it is a really welcoming centre.
We are trying to raise vital
funds for activities so we can
make it a much more stimulating experience for the residents, who are aged between
77 and 92.
I first found out about the
work that Mr Powell has
delivered over the years
around local care homes and
contacted him.
Since their initial chat
Horizon is really supporting
Parklands and is looking forward to several projects such
as assisting with fundraising
to visits from Horizon students who will perform and
interact with the residents
throughout the year.
I can’t thank Horizon
enough. We are really proud
of supporting Parklands as
well as additional care homes
throughout the year.
WINTER 2014/15 Issue 10 The Horizon – 13
Kate Winder Student Enterprise Coordinator
Leaders of the future
To know I have
the role of student community
enterprise
coordinator until I
leave school is an
amazing feeling!
I know I’ll be
given so many
opportunities; I
am very excited
to see what the future will bring. It
will be a sad time when I leave
school but I know I will have
gained so many skills to help me
progress in life at everything I
wish to do!
Community enterprise has to
be the best thing a school can offer
its students. You can be independent, inspiring, confident and
continually learn throughout...
without community enterprise I
would not have the achievements
and memories I now have because
it links into so many different
areas of a pupil’s life!
It can be something like going
out to perform in the community for a dancer or for a gifted
mathematician it can be going
out to compete in regional and
national competitions!
Community enterprise reaches every area of school life, somehow and at some point. The community enterprise team guide
you to achieve beyond what you
imagine possible and inspire you
to keep working harder for your
goals.
I know that when I achieve my
certificates for ‘I Know I Can’ I
feel a sense of pride as I look
back on the hours of activities
and events I have taken part in,
of which more or less all of them
are community enterprise related!
I am extremely thankful for
the opportunities I have being
given and will continue to partake in events in the community
and wider.
Brad Healey, Alexander Ferandez DeCalvahio and James Miller
members of the Student Governors.
Students have a
voice at Horizon
Student voice is crucial here at
Horizon and the Year 9 have had a
fantastic first meeting of student
governors.
The board has been set up by a
broad range of students who applied
and were interested in becoming a
respected member of the Student
Governor team.
The meeting was engaging and
productive. The form representatives will now discuss the points to
everyone in their forms. This will
enable all Year 9 students to have a
voice and make key decisions about
community enterprise opportunities throughout their time at
Horizon ensuring that every student
has a fantastic time throughout their
learning journey.
There will be key members of staff
invited to attend and speak directly
to the student governors throughout
the year and all of the minutes and
action points will be sent to senior
management and our official school
governors.
This vehicle will ensure that all
concerns will be raised, discussed
and acted upon, ensuring that the
student voice is an integral part of all
Year 9 students.
Mr Robson was pleased by their
mature approach and is looking forward to developing the team
throughout this year.
Barnsley FC report
Tough times at Oakwell
By Brad Healey, 9K
By The Gaming Club
This review is about the game Super
Smash Bros for the 3DS.
When you’re looking for a competitive game what comes to mind...
other than shooting and racing
games and when you think of
Nintendo, what fighter comes to
mind? For us it’s Super Smash Bros.
In this game you deal damage to
each other and the more someone
takes the further they will fly when
hit hard. To score points against others you must send them flying out of
the arena.
Boasting a wide range of charac-
ters from classics like Pac-man to
iconic ones like Sonic or Mario there
are many to choose from.
But that’s only the main brawl
mode. There are other modes –
smash run, target smash, home run
contest, classic and all star mode.
What ever mode you try, you’re sure
to have fun.
Also for you completionists out
there, there are loads of challenges
to complete, we’ve only just
scratched the surface.
At the gaming club we can’t get
enough of this game and you can be
sure we will be getting the Wii U version.
Inspirational New York
stadium skills trip
By Bronwen Doolling, 9J
When I took part in the leadership
skills trip at Rotherham FC’s New
York stadium with Miss Hunt and
some Year 9 students it made me
realise children with disabilities are
no different from people like us and
they can still achieve their dreams
and goals for the future!
On this trip we took part in a
number of activities, including
sports sign language, then we had
to plan different activities that primary school students could take
part in during the afternoon.
The main things we had to focus
on was how to make it entertaining
and to get everyone involved, also
we had to change it for the children
with disabilities.
During this session we all came
out of our comfort zone by making
new friends, talking to new people
and leading sessions to people we
didn’t know. The idea was to boost
our confidence and give us more
experience in working with children and different people.
Jordan Dunkley Year 9 student
said, “I have enjoyed this experience so much. It has given me a
huge confidence boost as I want to
work with children who have disabilities in the future.
Another Year 9 student Loren
Sidebottom said, “I enjoyed working with a wonderful group of people which has given me experience
for my future jobs working with
children. All the students that took
part enjoyed the day so much and
they gained loads of experience
from it.
Times are hard at Oakwell as the
Reds are experiencing a
‘rollercoaster’ of results,
continually interchanging between winning
and losing.
Many spectators are
growing impatient at
the sloppy football that is
being churned out at times,
as they are aware of the attractive football that the team has
displayed in certain games,
examples are versus Gillingham
and Bristol City. The real key to
success is consistency, and if the
players can rediscover their previous fine form and keep it going
then they will no doubt regain
the support of the fans and the
support of the club.
Some ‘extremist’ fans have
even been calling for the sacking
of manager Danny Wilson but
these calls have been rebuffed
by, ‘Give him time,’ or,’Who’s
going to replace him?’ Most fans
certainly agree with these statements and are currently happy
with the Barnsley boss and the
job that he is doing but it is safe
to say that the sack is
inevitable for him, if he
fails to make his players
work for results.
Most fans have been
blaming the defence,
which is the area that
needs most work, as we
are the team that has conceded the most goals so far
this season. Another area that
needs developing is the width, as
the diamond formation that we
currently play dictates that we
pass through the middle, which
means that it is very easy to
defend against. Our narrow style
of play eliminates any extra
chance of going forward.With no
wide players there is no one who
is available in space, and it
means we have to go backwards,
which just frustrates the fans
even more.
Overall, we just need to get
positive results; otherwise we
could be looking at an extremely
low finish this year.
Inspired by a fallen solider
By Bradley Healey, 9K
Having delivered a speech in the two
earliest Remembrance assemblies, it
was a real privilege to be a part of the
audience and experience the presentation from another point of
view.
Throughout the service, I noticed
that every single Year 9 student bore
a poppy which was noticed by Mrs
Manley, who said, “It was brilliant to
see the students wearing poppies to
show respect for our fallen heroes.”
During the presentations in which
I read, I was extremely nervous to
talk about a local hero (Albert
Edward Shepard, who was from
Royston, pictured right).
I felt it was
imperative that
I should commemorate his
name properly,
and make sure
that the inspiration he has
given to me was spread throughout
the theatre.
As a spectator I felt that the service
was very moving and that it recognised the suffering and torture that
the WW1 soldiers went through during 1914-18.
Leadership Team
report
Mrs Marriott
What a start to the new academic year!
The students in Year 9 have yet again
surpassed all expectations.
The recent data collection shows that
the students are progressing well and
aiming high. Well done! This hard work
and determination to succeed needs to
continue in the run up to the next data
collection at the end of January and support from parents with regards to homework and Accelerated Reader is greatly
appreciated by the College.
Many students have also taken time to
contribute to many fantastic extracurricular activities since the start of term, many
of which have been mentioned throughout this edition. One of my highlights has
to be the Remembrance service, where
the students showed their respect to our
fallen soldiers. It was a very moving event
that I was proud to be part of and the visitors to this event commented on the
maturity of the students.
Next on the agenda for this year is the
option process. Please make every effort
to attend any evenings offered to support
our students in this process, as these
decisions are very important for the
future.
Community
Enterprise report
Mr Robson
Community Enterprise is really gathering
pace! Already we have over 75% of students taking part in community activities,
which is fantastic to see.
We now have all our new Student
Enterprise Co-ordinators in place, (look
out in the next edition to see who they
are) our student governors have had their
first meeting this year and things are
starting to happen.
This year will see further projects start
including our work with Dearne FM, an
exciting opportunity for anyone interested
in media. BBC School News Report kicks
off this term too!
Our next IKIC Awards take place in
March and I would like to see many more
of you receiving your certificates for passing levels 1 & 2 of the award.
I would like to thank all the staff and
students who took part in last year’s Age
UK Christmas concert that was held in
the theatre. Without your commitment,
time and effort and the support of Miss
Hunt and Mr Powell it would not have
been possible.
Anyone that is interested in getting
involved with what’s happening in
Community Enterprise should contact
me in the community office or email
[email protected].
I am confident that 2015 will be the
year Community Enterprise at Horizon
comes into its own and continues to help
our students deliver the message that
Barnsley is a real ‘Can Do’ town!
14 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
Aubrey Martin-Wells Royal British Legion Chairman with Anne Martin-Wells.
Horizon remembers those lost in WW1
Thursday 6 November was a significant day at Horizon Community
College; as our students attended
both a Remembrance assembly and
formal service, appropriately timed
at 11.00am.
The Remembrance assembly was
presented by eight students, Horizon
staff and members of our wider community. It was a sombre occasion,
where students learnt about the First
World War and were able to show their
respect to ALL those who have lost
their lives or loved ones through conflict over the years. It was also very
pleasing to see so many students from
all Year groups purchasing poppies
both before and after their assemblies.
We were delighted that members of
our wider community helped and supported this event, including: Andy
Lodge (IKIC Patron) and Tom
Parnham (Vice Chair of Pogmoor Area
Residents’ Association) members of
the Royal British Legion Aubrey
Martin-Wells Royal British Legion
Group Chairman (Chairman), Royal
British Legion Group Chairman Ian
Newton (Chaplain), Anne Marin-Wells
and Beryl Swift and both the Police
and Fire Services.
Thanks go to Mrs Johnson who created the thought-provoking Remembrance assembly and significant
11.00am service. She also generously
gave her time to ensure our
Heartspace was transformed with
wonderful displays, including a ‘Peace
Wall’, with students’ work and messages of peace written on doves, and a
‘drum’ altar that gave the occasion
authenticity. This could not have been
achieved without effective teamwork;
with thanks to Mr Carr from the Art
department creating the backdrop on
the main window, Mr Benson and the
History team who displayed Year 8 students’ form-time work of ‘Tommy talk’
and Year 9 students’ homework of historic models, such as their WW1
trenches, and Mrs Whitehouse for producing the creative lettering ‘Learn
from yesterday, live for today, hope for
tomorrow’, written by Albert Einstein.
What Remembrance Day means to me
By Kate Winder, 9H
Head of History Mr Benson, pictured with Kate along with
her article that was published in the Barnsley Chronicle.
Remembrance Day is an
opportunity to think about
how the veterans would have
felt going to war and how
emotional the following years
would have been.
As veterans returned home,
the country fell into a state of
relief and pride. Parents saw
their children again, siblings
saw their heroes return home,
young men and women saw
their best friends smile at last
and the soldiers could begin to
feel safe once again. The men,
to some, may have been considered foolish to enlist and go
to war, leave their families and
sail away from their own
country, but to me they will
always be regarded as
extremely brave. They are the
worthy cause of Remembrance Day.
I remember in primary
school, we would gather in the
hall for the 2 minutes silence. I
could hardly keep still for 30
seconds when I was 5 years
old, like all kids, so when I
took part in my first
Remembrance Service, two
minutes of silence was hard to
observe. I came away from the
service wondering why we
were asked to be silent and
still. Now, at 13, I have taken
part in many Remembrance
Services and with each successive service I feel more in
touch with the massive event
that took place back in 1914;
the First World War!
I’ve researched World War
One and had a term of lessons
in history, I’ve learnt about my
own great grandad who died
at the age of 26 on the first day
of battle. I now understand
how important the 11th of
November is for families all
over Europe! Every year more
than 40 million Remembrance
poppies, 5 million Remembrance petals and 750,000
Remembrance Crosses are
sold... Each year the British
public raises an average
amount of £39 million for our
armed forces!
I give two minutes of my
fortunate life to reflect on the
many hundreds of lives lost in
that very same two minutes,
but I can only try to imagine
the pain and suffering of the
soldiers and their families
back home. Two minutes of
my time is a very small price to
pay when compared to the
price those men paid.
WINTER 2014/15 Issue 10 The Horizon – 15
Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme
After a great success last year, we
have restarted the Duke of
Edinburgh Bronze Award with a
fresh group of Year 9s and 10s.
Following on from a parents’
meeting in September, where students from last year’s Duke of
Edinburgh group presented on
their expedition, the new group
began meeting after school on
Tuesdays. The first meeting saw
over 40 students attend in Horizon’s
Theatre, where the DofE Award was
explained, and team-building
games were played! Following on
from this, the real work began and,
in the following weeks, map reading
and first aid were the topics covered.
The students have picked up the
skills extremely well, and it’s nice to
see a consistent number of students
commit to the award so far. As we
continue this year’s DofE, we will be
including necessary training in
cooking, camp craft, more first aid
and route planning, as we prepare
for our first walk in February, where
we will take a group to Langsett
Reservoir for a morning hike. It may
seem a long way away, but then, in
June, we will be taking part in our
practice expedition, whereby students lead their own expedition on
a route they have created, before
camping overnight and walking
again
the
next day. This
is all in practice for the
final expedition, which
will
take
place in September. This is not to
mention the months of volunteering, physical challenges and skills
the students must adopt to take
part in the DofE Award!
Poppy
shop
triumph
Mrs Heskett
By Danielle Hanlon and
Gillian Fraser-Barber, 10H
Full marks for a Perfect Pout
By Amelia Adams,
Rose Dyson and
Kaylee Scholefield, 10H
Are your lips craving attention?
‘Perfect Pout’ is the one for you! We
are a group of three best friends
currently studying in Year 10 who
are participating in this year’s I
Know I Can Big Barnsley Challenge,
an enterprise and business competition aimed at young people.
As lovers of all things beauty, we
came up with the idea of a range of
handmade, natural, organic lip
products suitable for all, including
vegetarians and vegans. The name
of the brand being ‘Perfect Pout’ by
our company, ARK Cosmetics, with
the ‘ARK’ being a combination of
our first initials – Amelia, Rose and
Kaylee.
After initially applying for the
challenge itself, we undertook a
series of stages which included a 15
minute ‘Dragons Den’ style presentation to a number of business
experts. This would decide our fate
and, if successful, we would be
shortlisted to represent Horizon.
Fortunately, we scored full marks in
each aspect of the process, which
included the originality of the idea,
marketing of the brand and teamwork.
We wanted to offer a unique
product to customers and produce
it in the most efficient way possible. Therefore, we researched possible containers for our products
and came up with the idea of small,
vintage style jam jars.
As a result of this we came up
with the initiative to recycle
unwanted jam jars from various
hotels and restaurants in the local
area as it’s cost efficient and good
for the environment. These included: Tankersley Manor Hotel,
Cubley Hall, Oulton Hall, The 3
Acres and Wentworth Garden
Centre and we would like to thank
them for their support.
For more information about us and our upcoming events please
check out social media on Facebook (Perfect Pout by ARK Cosmetics),
Twitter (@ARKCosmetics) and Instagram (@arkcosmetics)
visit our website (www.arkcosmetics.weebly.com) or
send us an email ([email protected]). Thank you for reading!
We have worked very hard to make
all of the poppies for the
Remembrance service; we got to be
a part of this because we are
involved in the IKIC Big Business
Challenge, which is great experience and fun to be in.
We had many people ask us who
made them and our response was,
Us! Everything we make is handmade and a certain amount of the
money we made is going to the
Royal British Legion. The poppies
were all made out of felt, wool felt
and felt sheets which we had cut
out and then sewn brooch pins
onto the back.
Many people bought these
because the poppies didn’t fall off
and they were great quality and
good value for money. We sold the
felt poppies for 50p and wool poppies for £1.
The ‘Munitionettes’ with Mrs Johnson.
Thank You
A huge thank you from Horizon Staff to the students involved in the British
Legion Festival of Remembrance on Thursday 6 November, including the
number of Year 10 students who took on the role of “Munitionettes” (the
women making ammunition during the First World War) and the numerous
students from all year groups reading, and taking part throughout the day.
The day could not have been done without you!
This is big business!
By Joe Sheldon, 10S
On Tuesday 18 November, I had the
privilege of taking a walk down to
the Digital Media Centre in the heart
of Barnsley for the launch event of
the ‘IKIC Big Business Challenge’
Businesses had the chance to set
up a stall and pitch their ideas to the
experienced entrepreneurs who
were walking around. Each business
had a very good stall and the businesses from Horizon really showed
what they had to offer.
When we were assembled in the
meeting area, we had some brilliant
guest speakers. Last year’s winner
spoke about how good an opportunity it was and how this year’s busi-
nesses look set to be very strong.
Stuart Turner from Barnsley based
sushi company ‘sushi sushi’ made
an interesting speech about his life
and how he established a highly
profitable business and a previous
contestant spoke about her own
business and how this experience
helped her.
Horizon even bagged an award.
The Horizon based business
BRW_Furniture (@BRW_Furniture)
won the ‘Highly Commended
Business Application Award’ and
were over the moon with this result.
The launch went swimmingly, with
every business using the opportunity
to not only market themselves, but to
have an amazing time too!
Leadership Team
report
BRW_Furniture won the highly commended business award.
September last year saw the creation of a
new Year 10 Leadership Team. Both Mr
Trainer and I are excited to have the
opportunity to work alongside Miss
White, Mrs Whitehouse and Miss Hewitt
with our students as they commence
their Key Stage 4 journey.
With the first term under our belts, we
are really pleased at the way our Year
10’s have embraced their new courses
and started KS4. In the summer term
Ofsted confirmed what we already knew
– our school is ‘good’ and the data which
has been collected in so far proves this to
be the case.
Students have had some great opportunities in the first term with some of our
students visiting the ‘Ambition Barnsley’
event at the Metrodome, taking part in
Duke of Edinburgh Expeditions and playing various roles in the recent Remembrance Events which have taken place
within our College.
Additionally, some of our students have
helped to raise money for Barnsley
Hospital Charities by being transformed
into terrifying zombies at last year’s
Zombie Run as well as facing entrepreneurial ‘dragons’ during the Big Barnsley
Business Challenge.
As we look forward to this half term we
hope to see our current standards of progression, tenacity and enterprising spirit
continue.
Community
Enterprise report
Mr Brammer
Since our last edition, Year 10 has been
very busy. The College has had a number
of exciting events which students have
fully engaged with.
We were extremely privileged to once
again be a part of the Royal British
Legion’s Festival of Remembrance which
ran out of Horizon through November.
Students volunteered at all stages, reading in the special assemblies which commemorated a centenary since the outbreak of the First World War. Lucas
Sutheren read a very moving verse in the
11 o’clock ceremony in the Heartspace,
whilst students from the Air Force Cadets
presented a “drum altar” on the stage.
Finally, in the community event in the
evening, they were ever present throughout, providing support during the
evening. A huge thank you should be
given to all the students involved.
As you’ll read from the articles in the
paper, this year’s IKIC Business Challenge is also in full flow, with the businesses actively selling. We all enjoyed the
Christmas Market in November, which
gave some of our businesses the first
taste of operating in a professional environment. We hope that they will be active
and engaged in similar events over the
coming months.
16 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
Work Related Learning and Careers Department
Every year is important to a student’s education, none more so than Years 10 and 11 when
they start their GCSE’s.
This is also a time when students need to
start and focus on what they want to do beyond
school and college, about what kind of career
they would like to pursue in the near future.
We are extremely fortunate here at Horizon
Community College to have our own designated Work Related Learning and Careers room.
Here you will find Mrs Daykin, our Work Related
Learning Co-ordinator, and Mr Harrison, our
Careers Advisor, both with extensive knowledge and expertise within their respective specialism. We caught up with Mr Harrison and
asked him to give us an overview of what happens within the Work Related Learning and
Careers Department.
Fantastic NEET results yet again
Once again, Horizon Community College has achieved
extremely low NEET figures
(Not In Education, Employment or Training) of 1%.
The national average is
around 4% for school leavers.
This means that 453 out of 458
year 11 students went into a
positive destination which
included college, 6th form,
apprenticeships, employment
and training.
Speaking on behalf of
Horizon CC Paul Harrison,
who is our Careers Advisor,
said, “The careers team are
extremely proud of these fig-
12 months on…
the bigger picture
The introduction of the RPA
(Raising the Participation Age) will
have a significant impact on the
way students learn and progress in
the future. It is of paramount
importance that students receive
the very best careers guidance to
support them through this transition.
Ensuring that students from
Horizon have sufficient knowledge
and information to help them make
impartial, well informed decisions
about what they want to do in the
future is an imperative part of the
reason why Horizon has such excellent figures with regard to NEETs
(Not in Education, Employment or
Training).
This positive intervention is also
an obvious factor when it comes to
looking at where our students are,
one year on from their departure
from Horizon.
2013 Leavers
Participating in Education 98.5%
NEET 1.5%
2013 Leavers – 1 year on
Participating in Education 95.2%
NEET 3.3%
The figures show that the majority
of Horizon students that left in the
summer of 2013 are still in education or training and continuing with
their learning. These figures are still
well above the national average, and
are testament to ensuring that students receive the correct information about the courses and providers
that are right for them.
ures which could not be
achieved without the support
from all staff and the students
themselves. It is of paramount
importance that young people
are able to make well informed
decisions regarding their
futures to enable them to
choose the right career pathway for themselves”.
“The students have many
opportunities within Horizon
to enrich their knowledge and
understanding of post 16 education and the world of work.
Some of the work that has
helped us reach these low
NEET figures includes talks
from local employers, college
and training providers, motivational speakers, college and
university
visits,
career
themed workshops, face to
face careers interviews, work
experience and careers fairs.
“The school is going from
strength to strength. Since its
opening, it has had two sets of
excellent GCSE and NEET
results as well as being given a
GOOD from Ofsted in every
category. I have no doubt that
with the continued hard work
put in from both staff and students the school will reach
outstanding status shortly.”
“
The careers interview with Mr Harrison
was very beneficial to me, now I know
what options are available to me after I
leave Horizon. We talked about which
pathways would suit me and looked at
higher education, something I didn’t
really think about before my meeting with
Mr Harrison. Now I feel motivated and
inspired to continue my education to the
highest level.
Year 11 student
Mrs Daykin
y College
Dearne Valle
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Tel: 01709 51
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Above and below: Mr Harrison discussing careers advice to Year 11 students.
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My position at Horizon is to give impartial
advice to all students as well as career
themed talks during tutor times, especially in key stage 4 where they need it the
most.
This helps the students to make well
informed choices about their futures and
enables them to choose a pathway that’s
most suited to them as an individual.
Each individual who is interviewed
receives an IDP (Individual Development
Plan) that is tailored to their specific
needs and requirements.
The students at Horizon have many
opportunities to enrich their own knowledge about further and higher education.
College and university visits are set up for
our students to enable them to gain an
insight into what learning will be like post
16.
The aim is to allow students to experience life as a university student and to
inspire them to aim for higher education.
Work Related Learning
Coordinator
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Barnsley Coll
16
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Tel: 01226
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Mr Harrison
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and support
For further help
ITS
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Careers Advisor
One of my responsibilities is to organise
the work experience programme for our
Year 10 students, which is now managed
internally. The benefit to this helps build
relations between the College and local
employers. Students are encouraged to
find their own placements, as experience
has shown that these are usually the
most successful, and we work closely
with over 200 employers enabling all students to have worthwhile experiences. I
am looking forward to building on the
success of 2014’s programme.
I support our Year 11 students with
their Post 16 applications, working closely with the Careers Advisor to ensure that
all students move on to a positive destination. Students are invited to attend
career themed workshops, which enable
local employers, colleges and training
providers to come into the College and
give talks to our students about courses,
jobs, apprenticeships and training within
that area of expertise.
In addition, I also plan and arrange the
annual Careers Fair which enables a
good variety of providers to attend in
order to provide information to our learners and their parents. My role helps to
ensure that students from Horizon have
sufficient knowledge and information to
help them make impartial, well informed,
decisions about what they want to do in
the future.
WINTER 2014/15 Issue 10 The Horizon – 17
Leadership Team
report
Mr Plant
Barnsley College, one of the evenings educational providers.
Community comes together to help every child succeed
On Wednesday 12 November
Horizon Community College hosted
a careers evening very different
from the ones that have gone
before.
For the last two years we have
delivered our careers evening on the
same night as parents’ evening, however this year the Year 11 Team decided to put a twist on careers evening.
Named “How to Help Your Child
Succeed” the event was a roaring success. Over 60 Further and Higher
Education providers travelled to
Horizon to have a stall in our “market
place”. The Heartspace was filled with
colleges, universities and apprenticeship providers all giving up their time
to come along and show our young
people exactly what they can offer.
The students had the chance to talk
to all the providers throughout the
course of the evening.
Not only did the students have the
opportunity to speak to over 60 different providers but they also had the
chance to hear from key speakers
from within Horizon. Students and
parents heard from:
Mr Bowen
Mr Wright
Mr Plant
Mrs Malson (Head of Maths)
Miss Khan (Head of English)
Mrs Daykin
(Work Related Learning)
There were 2 different timeslots on
the evening where these key speakers delivered important messages
about a wide range of things. The
common theme throughout all the
speeches was how to help every child
succeed. Information was given
about revision techniques, useful
websites along with information
about what we are doing as a school
to monitor every student in Year 11.
The evening also saw all the Heads
of Department attend. Each department also had their own stall
throughout the evening where they
were on hand to chat to both students and parents. This was very different from a parents’ evening as the
Heads of Department were not there
to discuss individual students.
This evening is one that will certainly stick in the memories of our
young people. Horizon Community
College would like to thank everyone
who attended this event and in particular the providers who travelled a
long distance. We very much appreciate it and it wouldn’t have been
such a success without you! See you
next year!
Through the years
By Kate Pursley, 11U
When I was first told that my previous school was to merge with
another school I was upset. I had
grown to love the building, got used
to my teachers and the people who
I was with. On the first day I walked
into Horizon I was apprehensive. I
felt that it would be like starting
high school all over again. I didn’t
want to have to make new friends.
I’d already done that once.
Within a short space of time I felt
very comfortable at Horizon. The
classrooms started to get filled
with work that students had done, I
had made new friends – and kept
some old ones too – and I was loving the opportunities that Horizon
was offering.
When Mr West first spoke to us in
assembly about becoming a
‘Student Enterprise Co-ordinator’ I
jumped at the chance. Soon I was
involved in more activities than I
could count on my two hands! The
school has allowed me to meet
really interesting people and has
increased my self-confidence as
well as gaining new skills along the
way.
It’s been an incredible journey.
I’ve now been in Year 11 for about
three months and the school has
already arranged before and after
school revision sessions for us seeing as our GCSE’s are only 6
months away. When I look at the
Year 7’s I can’t believe that I was
ever that young! It’s strange to
think that I once looked like that to
people.
I can’t explain how quickly my
time at Horizon has gone. I have
grown to love it and it’s a great
school for students. I do miss my
previous school but I wouldn’t have
changed my time here at Horizon
for anything else.
Year 11 Prom Committee
Connor Kirby and Louis Taylor pictured with football kit sponsor
Claire Atkinson, owner of iRent Properties.
Come Wednesday 24 June 2015, Year
11 students will be getting ready for
what some of them have been waiting for all their secondary school life,
their end of year Prom. Some students have imagined this day for the
last 5 years!
On Thursday 27 November the
Prom Committee was set up. The
Committee is made up of students
from each form in Year 11. Over the
coming months they will be key to
the organisation and planning of
what will, hopefully, be the best Prom
to date. So far the committee has discussed many different ideas about
what Wednesday 24 June will look
like. As well as helping choose the
theme the students will work with
the budget and make decisions. As a
school we wanted to let the students
have as much input as possible into
the evening.
There is currently a survey being
done in school amongst students
regarding what theme they would
like. There have been various discussions in the group about what this
should be but as of yet the committee
is yet to decide.
Before the next edition of the
Horizon newspaper comes out in
April we will have hopefully hosted a
Prom Fair at Horizon and we will have
most definitely chosen the theme,
and we should be able to let you know
when the tickets will be on sale!
More information will be available
soon so keep checking the college
website. If any parents have any
questions about the Prom they can
email [email protected]
We began the new term in September
with the mantra ‘We are on it’ and both
students and staff have not looked back
since. Students have realised that this is
the most important year of their school
career to date and are focused on
achieving excellent results in the summer.
It is a pleasure to hear teachers commenting on the very mature, proactive
and hard working approach of students
when it comes to making the very most
from their final year. It is fantastic to see
so many them choosing to come in early
or stay behind after school to do extra
work with staff who are kindly giving up
their time to support them.
It was pleasing to see how well attended the parents’ evening was and it is
clear that parents are working hard to
support their children in their studies. The
‘How to Help Your Child Succeed’
evening was a huge success and provided students with an opportunity to speak
to a diverse range of Further Education
and training providers that included
Cambridge University. Students have
been preparing hard for important mock
exams and we hope that all their hard
work will be reflected in the ‘Mock
Results Day’ we are holding this month.
We are really proud of the progress of
our students and feel sure that their focus
and determination will be rewarded with
excellent results in the summer.
Community
Enterprise report
Mr West
The last two weeks of term saw our Year
11 students sit their mock exams. This
was a really important two weeks as it
got the students into the frame of mind
they need to be in come the Summer.
It is such a busy year, with intervention,
mock exams and catch up. This means
that opportunities for Community
Enterprise activities are limited.
One opportunity over the Christmas
period has been the introduction of the
Prom committee. We have begun to think
about ideas for our Prom later on this
year and as part of this we have formed a
committee of students from each form to
formulate ideas and to start planning the
event. This is very much in the early
stages and we are looking forward to
putting things in place so this event will
be one to remember. The organisation of
the Prom will very much be student led
giving the students opportunities to experience planning and running an event.
From a personal point of view one thing
I am particularly proud of is the “How to
Help Your Child Succeed” Evening we
had on Wednesday 12 November. This
was such a fantastic evening for both
parents/carers and students. It was great
to see so many people in the Heartspace.
We had over 60 outside providers in college to talk about further education and
employment. There was certainly a real
buzz around the college that evening.
18 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
Sweet success for Candyland
By Sophie Hazeldine and
Charlotte Williams, Year 9
Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26, November saw the ‘Candyland’ Dance Show
take place at Horizon Community
College.
The show included over 200 of
Horizon’s students and we were privileged
to be 2 of those students. After all the
stress and commitment over the past couple of months, the show was a huge success with each night being sold out.
We would like to say an extremely big
thank you to Miss Martin and Miss Hunt
for all their effort that they put into the
show. Without them and the three-hour
rehearsals, it wouldn’t have been possible.
Both nights included panic and excitement backstage from the 200-plus per-
formers while the audience in the theatre
waited in anticipation of what was to
come. The shows got off to a great start
with the Year 9 pick-and-mix dancers
(jelly beans, cola bottles, love hearts and
jelly babies) and the other dances themed
around different sections of candy.
The atmosphere was truly ecstatic with
the performers enticing the audience into
waving, clapping and cheering.
By Kate Winder, Year 9
Hundreds of hours went into Horizon’s most recent show,
‘Candyland’. The show, inspiredby Matthew Bourne’s, ‘The
Nutcracker’, was unique.
Every dance was themed around sweets. From Halloween
to candy-floss, from jelly rings to cola cubes and sherbet, it
was a spectacle to behold when all the costumes, lighting
and music came together.
I thoroughly enjoyed every second and the magical show
was a sweet success.
Over £1,000 raised for children’s hospital charity
By Miss Kerr, Teacher of
Physical Education
School nursing team promoting men’s health awareness month.
Movember at Horizon
Around 300 Horizon boys and
young men were seen in the
Heartspace on Wednesday 26
November to celebrate the month
of Movember – also known as Men’s
Health Awareness Month.
Traditionally the Movember
Foundation was set up globally to
encourage people to commit to
change the face of Men’s Health.
The moustache is popularly grown
in November by many men who
wish to draw attention to the cause
and has been worn to represent the
gap between how someone appears
to be and how they’re really feeling
inside. (Please Hear What I Am
Saying – poem Movember official
site 2014.)
The School Nursing Team’s aim
was to meet with and speak to as
many young men as possible sharing knowledge that testicular cancer
is the most common cancer in
young men aged 25 to 49 years and
that self-examination is vital to
detect the condition early and to
drive the cure rates to over 95%.
The day was a huge success,
health promotion literature was
handed out and around 280 to 300
boys and young men between the
ages of 12 to 16 years were made
aware of this cause and the importance of self-examination and talking about their Health.
The Horizon young men were
great fun to work with and the
School Nursing Team had a productive day with the enthusiastic support of school staff and students.
The message promoted was “Boys
Need to Talk” – alongside a factual
DVD about the importance of testicular self-examination.
“Knowledge is PowerPrevention is
everything. Early detection is Key.”
Quote from UK Official Men’s
Health Site.
Any Horizon student wishing to
speak to the School Nursing Team in
relation to talking through worries
or concerns can access the
Wellbeing Centre or School Nurse
Drop In every Monday 2.15 to 4.30
pm.
Horizon’s ‘PE Charity Crew’ is
supporting Sheffield Children’s
Hospital Bedroom Appeal, by aiming to raise £5,000 which will contribute to a new state of the art
bedroom within the Intensive Care
Unit.
The PE Charity Crew came about
when students of Horizon Community College happened to be participating in the Sheffield Fun Run
where I was running the Sheffield
10K. The students asked me what I
was doing and I told them I was running in aid of The Sheffield
Children’s
Hospital
Bedroom
Appeal. Our amazing, thoughtful,
proactive students then asked
through PE lessons if they could get
their classes involved to help raise
further funds. My answer was of
course was yes! A very good friend of
mine, Helen Beck from the Holiday
Inn Royal Victoria in Sheffield, experienced, first-hand, the amazing
work of The Sheffield Children’s
Hospital. Her daughter´s life was
saved by the remarkable doctors
and nurses at the hospital when she
was only 5 weeks old. Now a lively 3
year old she is inspiring many people to help our cause. In honour of
this, Helen Beck has set out to raise
£25,000 for the bedroom appeal, in
which Horizon PE Charity Crew
hope to raise £5,000 of it.
On Tuesday and Wednesday 25, 26
November the PE Charity Crew provided all of the refreshments for the
Candyland Dance Show. It was very
touching that Helen, her son Kieran
and her daughter Amelia came into
school to meet us all and got
involved in decorating cakes and
setting up for our 1st event. I would
like to make a special thank you to
Kelly’s Bakery, Carlton Road,
Barnsley, who donated masses of
ingredients to enable the students to
make and decorate the many cakes
for us to sell. Also to mick.mitchell
@designandimageworks.com who
very kindly took some wonderful
photos which has now enabled us to
highlight the fantastic work our students are doing and promote their
future fundraising events. From this
event alone, we raised an amazing
£1,031.70.
The second event took place on
Sunday 7 December where our PE
Charity Crew bag packed at Tesco
Extra in Sheffield.
All funds raised, photos and information of future events will be
added to our Justgivingsite (please
see the Horizon website for details).
Any further donations would be
very much appreciated. Once again
a massive well done to all the students involved, you’re a credit to the
School and Extended Community.
Kieran, Amelia and mum Helen pictured (right of Pudsey) with the PE Charity Crew.
WINTER 2014/15 Issue 10 The Horizon – 19
Horizon win eight goal thriller
On Wednesday 22 October, Mr Dowle
took the U15 girls football team to
Sheffield to play in the South
Yorkshire School’s Cup.
Ten minutes into the game Isabel
Thomas’ long range strike took a
wicked deflection and wrong footed
the keeper to put Horizon 1 nil up. The
home team pushed more players forward in search of an equaliser and
they soon got what they were looking
for. Not long after that Horizon found
themselves 2-1 down as the half came
to an end.
The second half saw Adrianna
Darlow smash in an equaliser to send
the game into extra time! Goals from
skipper Ellie Hawcroft (2) and Isabel
Thomas saw Horizon safely through
to the next round 5-3.
Students who took part in Female Football Development run by Barnsley FC.
Mr Dowle with the U-15 girls football team.
South Yorkshire test for footballers
By Mr Dowle, PE Department
24 out of the original 65 to be called
back for the final trials. Both girls
were very impressive once again
and it was a tough decision that the
coaches had to make.
Ellie made the squad and unfortunately Annie just missed out.
Despite not making the squad,
Ellie Hawcroft, Adrianna Darlow,
Annie Salter and Neve Stretton were
called up to take part in the trials for
the U14 South Yorkshire team. All of
the girls impressed the coaches and
Ellie and Annie were amongst the
Annie made a huge impression in a
group that was mainly made up of
girls in the year above her and she
will have another chance to make
the squad next year.
As well as South Yorkshire trials,
Ellie Hawcroft has recently had trials for England schoolgirls.
Netball teams shoot to victory in competition
Horizon cheerleaders.
Winter PE Kit reminder
PE Dept
As we are now in the winter months please ensure your child is
prepared for PE lessons. Please refer to the Kit list on the school
website. Black thermal ‘skins’ or long sleeved tops and tracksuit
bottoms would also be recommended to wear underneath, as
well as bringing a plastic bag to put them in after your lesson. Any
questions please see a member of the PE department.
Above and below: Horizon students who took part in the cross country in 2014.
On Tuesday 18 November the
Girls Netball team played
against two different teams,
Kirk Balk and Barnsley Academy. The two teams played each
other first while we had a bit
more practice and as we
entered the sports hall you
could see they were feisty opponents.
As we played our first match
against Kirk Balk I thought to
myself ‘we could win this’ and as
the game progressed I felt more
and more pressure to defend for
my team. In the end we won 8-0
so it was a very good game, but
now we had to play the other
team. After half time the score
was 2-2 so it was tense and as the
pressure built up it went to 3-3
and the last minute whistle was
blown.
Darcy Hancock was ready for
the ball as Adrianna passed it
from Imogen. Darcy got the goal
and Ellie was ready for the
rebound but there was no need
as it went in! We had won! We
were through!
Adrianna said, “I am very glad
we won. I thought we worked
hard enough to get there.”
Tiegan said, “Even though it
was the first match I’d played I
was very happy with the result!”
Second place for Year 8 team
By Grace Mitchell, 8H
On Tuesday 25 November, my friends and I
took part in a netball competition that was
held at Kirk Balk high school.
We came second and thoroughly enjoyed
it. It’s a great sport and I think more people
should get involved.
There will be more competitions coming
up and we would love you to take part. We
play against other schools around this area.
Below: Year 9 and (right) Year 8 netball teams.
Mareks a boxing double world champion
Credit to school in cross country
Last year, throughout September and
October, a small but determined group
of Horizon students went up against
all weathers in muddy and hilly terrains to compete in the Barnsley
schools cross country championships.
Everyone involved was a credit to
the school but special mentions must
go to Lily Teasdale Year 7 Rowan
Briscoe Year 8 and Eve Deacon Year 9
who were overall winners of their year
group and will now compete in the
South Yorkshire Cross Country this
year.
We now have a double world
champion gold medallist amongst
our students at Horizon. Year 11
student, Mareks Pelcis travelled to
Tuscany, Italy on Tuesday 28
October to compete for two gold
medals, he returned 5 days later
with both of them.
What is even more impressive is
the way he won both of the medals.
In the low kick final Mareks’ opponent was pulled out in the first
round and in the k1 bout Mareks
was declared the winner after he
knocked out his opponent with a
kick after only 17 seconds.
The success Mareks has achieved
hasn’t come without hard work and
dedication. Every weekday he is in
the gym training to develop his
skills and to become even better at
a sport that he is already showing
huge potential in.
Mareks’ journey to double gold
medal winner started when he was
6, in his home country Latvia and
he is hopeful that he will be fighting
professionally when he is 21 years
old. Mareks currently trains at The
Combat Academy in Wombwell,
owned by Mick Crossland. Mick’s
younger brother Tommy is one of
our Year 11 students and he too
trains and competes with The
Combat Academy.
The gym provides opportunities
for people to improve their fitness
and health and also train and compete in Thai Boxing, Kick Boxing,
BJJ and MMA.
Mareks Pelcis, with his gold medals.
20 – The Horizon Issue 10 WINTER 2014/15
Mr Mills with the Year 11 football team who reached
the 6th round of the English Schools Trophy.
Adrianna Darlow.
Emerging
player
award for
Adrianna
Adrianna Darlow (9R) has recently
been awarded a place on the
English cricket boards’ Emerging
Player Performance (EPP).
The scheme for young cricketers
is funded by the ECB and is aimed
at finding elite cricketers with the
potential to go on to play international cricket for England.
Adrianna is the youngest of only
six girls in Yorkshire who have been
placed on the scheme. She now has
to attend Headingly cricket ground
once every week for coaching by
Tony Pickersgill, who also coaches
current England players Joe Root
and Johnny Bairstow.
As well as cricket skills the girls
have lessons on strength and conditioning, nutrition and media skills.
Her coach has to report back to the
ECB on Adrianna’s progress every
month. For the last two years she
has been part of the Yorkshire
Women’s U13 team that have won
the county championship, at this
year’s finals weekend she scored 32
not out in the semi-final against
Hampshire and then 45 in the final
against Kent.
Opening the batting Adrianna
bowls off spin and has taken a number of catches. Her club cricket is
played at Barnsley and also
Wrenthorpe where she was part of
the U15s who finished 3rd in the
national T20 competition in
Leamington at which she took a hat
trick in the semi-final against a
team from Sussex.
Many at the school will remember that last year Adrianna captained the school U13 girl’s indoor
team in their amazing day out at
Lords where they finished 2nd out
733 schools who entered the competition.
Adrianna is also a black belt in
karate and kickboxing and is currently training for her 1st Dan. Her
aim for the next year is to have a
good year with Yorkshire U15s and
then aim for a place in the England
U15 squad in a year’s time.
Since the last newspaper addition
we have been very busy within the
PE department.
One of our very good colleagues
Mrs Carol Jackson (HLTA) has retired
from Horizon CC. For the last 15 years
she has contributed so much to the
PE department, in particular she has
put a lot of time and effort into disability sport. She has been part of a
team of staff who have ensured varied
and engaging opportunities have
been on offer for our students, from
residential trips to Stoke Mandeville,
multi skills clubs and athletics competitions. We will greatly miss her
input and so will the students!
Our GCSE students are very busy
completing their practical assessments. A group of 20 students in Year
11 participated in the Barnsley
Schools Orienteering competition, as
part of their GCSE assessment. This
took place at Cannon Hall country
park, with Olivia Plotts 11U and
Makauley Barron 11M completing
the course in the quickest time.
We have been very lucky to have
Adam from The British Karate and
Kickboxing Association deliver taster
sessions within KS3 and KS4 lessons.
This has encouraged some students
to take up the opportunity after
school within their community club,
which runs on Wednesdays from 6pm
Sports
round
up
in The Activity Hall. This term many
of our elite sports performers have
excelled in their sports.
You will see from our featured articles the amazing talents, and we will
continue to share the successes of
these students as they are the stars of
the future. Ellie Hawcroft has recently
been selected for trials with the U15
England football squad. The coaches
said she was a pleasure to work with,
but on this occasion has not been
selected for the squad. She will continue playing for her club and the
South Yorkshire U15 team until the
next opportunity arises.
The Horizon PE Sports Leaders
have had a very busy time. They have
been supporting various Primary
Schools Competitions and finals,
including Cheerleading, Gymnastics
and Football. Six Year 10 GCSE PE students have been trying out their passion for working with young children
and teaching Year 1 Gymnastics
lessons at Shawlands Primary School.
Emma Hay said, “I wish we could do
this all the time. It’s great fun!”
Several students within Year 10 have
had a great opportunity to work
alongside Dean Smith from the
Yorkshire Cricket Board within their
GCSE lessons. These students will be
taking a leading role within upcoming tournaments that are scheduled
Year 9 girls who were recently coached by Lily Cole of
Barnsley FC as part of the ‘MOTD Kickabout’. (See story below)
for the summer. Their roles will
include coaching, officiating and
organising.
I hope the sports pages show the
variety of opportunities and events
that have been taking place. There are
several clubs that are running every
Match of the Day call up
By PE Department
It’s not every day that you get to
appear on national television and
show off your football skills but
that’s what a group of Year 9 girls
did just recently, at Oakwell
Football Club in Barnsley.
They were invited by the club to
work with young coach Lily Cole as
she was being filmed for the children’s television football programme MOTD Kickabout, which
is broadcast every Saturday morning on CBBC.
The programme was aired on
Saturday 22 November and the
girls could be seen, playing football
and answering questions as Lily
coached them.
Football@Horizon
Horizon Community College football teams are so far having a fairly
successful season. The College
boasts six boys’ football teams and
all have played in several competitive matches since September in
three different cup competitions.
The teams, with their respective
managers, are:
Year 7 – Mr Woodhouse
and Mr Storey
Year 8 – Mr Sidebottom
and Mr Jewitt
Year 9 A squad – Mr Loraine
Year 9 B squad – Mr Loraine
Year 10 – Mr Copley
Year 11 – Mr Mills.
The three competitions that our
teams have played in are the ESFA
cup (English Schools Football
Association), the SYSFA cup (South
Yorkshire Schools Football Association) and the Barnsley Schools Cup.
Congratulations to both the Year 9
A squad and the Year 11 team who
have both reached the 6th round of
the ESFA winning all five of their previous matches in this competition.
A fantastic achievement! Well done
to all players
Best wishes also to the Year 8 and
Year 7 teams who are due to play in
the second round of the SYSFA cup.
And finally, let’s hope the Year 7
team, Year 8 team, Year 9 B squad
and the Year 11 teams win their next
matches in the next round of the
Barnsley Schools Cup.
The PE department works closely with Barnsley FC to encourage
more girls to play football. The
opportunity has certainly encouraged this group of girls to take
more interest in football as one of
the group commented, “It’s been
great to be taught at a proper football club. I think my football skills
are a lot better and I got to appear
on television!”
England
trial proud
moment
for Ellie
By Ellie Hawcroft, 9I
Year 9 ‘A’ Squad coached by Mr Loraine.
day after school. Our trampolining
club has been extremely successful
and students enjoyed the Barnsley
Schools U14 and U16 competitions in
early December. Megan Bridge, Year 8
and Lucy Sayles Balmer, Year 9 were
the performers of the tournament.
On 12 November I travelled down to
Stafford Town to represent the
North of England squad in a second
round trial for England Schoolgirls
against the Midlands squad.
We arrived in our suits and were
given an England kit to play in. The
game was brilliant and not only did
we end up winning 5-1 but I scored a
left footed shot into the bottom corner which meant I had achieved my
life goal. At the age of just 14, I had
scored a goal in an England shirt.
I gave it everything I had and I
knew that no matter what the outcome I couldn’t have given it any
more. I am currently in the South
Yorkshire squad and next up is
Durham in the ESFA cup, which I am
looking forward to very much.
I am hoping to carry on a great
season. This season I have scored 13
goals for my teams and hopefully
there will be many more to come!
Ellie with the U15 England squad.
Editorial by the students and staff at The Horizon Community College. Produced by the Graphics Team at the Barnsley Chronicle and printed by Yorkshire Web, 47 Church Street, Barnsley S70 2AS. Tel: 01226 734663.