Ulverston Victoria High School (UVHS) is a secondary school and Sixth Form located in Ulverston, Cumbria. Their Geography, Maths, Science, Art, English, History, Modern Languages and Music departments are all members of the Schools Programme.

Geography department

This year has been a busy one for the Geography department as fieldwork has become a large part of both the new GCSE and A Level courses. The annual Year 8 Ambleside fieldtrip took place towards the end of June, where pupils gathered lots of data on environmental quality and land use at different sites developing their enquiry skills and geographical knowledge.

GCSE Geographers visited Sedbergh to complete a rivers study on Settlebeck Gill and Lancaster to complete an urban study. Year 10 carried out a variety of tasks in order to collect their data, from river cross sections and measuring average velocity to asking members of the public questions from their questionnaires. They will now focus on presenting their data and evaluating their experience.

A Level pupils camped at the Peak District National Park, followed by a visit to Manchester and Salford Quays staying at the Manchester YHA. They used a variety of data collection techniques, from sediment analysis in the river to measuring average decibels in Salford Quays. They will now be working on writing up their fieldwork in a 5,000 word report that contributes to their final A Level mark.

The UVHS Geography blog continues to be a great success, with resources added frequently to aid with wider reading and revision of topics covered at both GCSE and A Level. This year the department looks forward to welcoming a Royal Geographical Society Ambassador to inform our Year 9 pupils of what GCSE Geography has to offer. 

Maths department

The Maths department have taken on the level 3 lead for the North West Maths Hub and began by hosting one of the FMSP/MEI workshops on teaching data handling. They have put together a proposal to run a research group for KS5 teachers in Cumbria & North Lancashire to look at a practical approach to teaching mechanics, are creating a working group to support the Blackpool area and running events encouraging more students to opt for A level Maths.

Science department

Science have been working on curriculum changes at every key stage, ensuring that they have adequate coverage of working scientifically skills, numeracy and the new more demanding content. The first year through the new A levels in science was met with great delight on results day, celebrating some of their best results in some subject areas in terms of L3 VA. Students had high aspirations and a number of students entered careers in medicine, veterinary, engineering, chemistry, biomedical science, Physics and many more, with others opting to complete higher-level apprenticeships locally.

The department are still developing their exciting extracurricular activities and this year they have some amazing events planned. The Year 12 Vic Medics group is growing in size to 35 students, which is over 50% of the Year 12 biology cohort, science ambassadors, links with local universities, hosting RSC competitions, Year 7 and 8-science club with Siemens and more! Ecology club is due to start next academic year and they are looking into being able to provide students with an award for their efforts. 

Art department

Art students from year 9 have completed a design for the regeneration of the Ulverston skate park. The project was a collaboration between South Lakeland District Council and Unity Radio from Manchester. The designs have been approved and the students will work on the painting of the ramp walls organised by the Unity Radio graffiti artists when the weather permits.

Following a successful pilot project during an activity week at the end of term, where year 8 Art students produced four ceramic totem poles to populate a rather empty courtyard in a new school development, this term the current year 9 are all working on their own totem poles to fill the space and complete the ‘forest like’ installation.

Continuing with the theme of public art, this year the department have an opportunity to work on the possibility of a mural as part of the development of Ulverston Fire station. 

English department

Following on from the great success of their work with The Woman in Black last year, Halloween saw the English department once again reading scary stories aloud to a bustling library.

The evening started with a book fair – a host of terrifying tales were on sale with what’s apparently known these days as a ‘cheeky’ discount – but the baying wolves heard in the distance seemed to set a few people on edge. Thankfully the wolves were chased away and the fire (courtesy of YouTube) was lit to warm the crowd. Hot drinks and cakes were served and people gathered round the window to watch the snow falling outside – once again, YouTube played its part!

Finally, with everyone seated and heated, Mr Guerrero warmed everyone up a little more with a stirring reading of the legend of the Baskervilles, taken from Conan Doyle’s classic, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

He was then joined by Mr Martin and Mr Stubbert for the main reading of the evening. The chilling, wintery tale, Dark Christmas, by Jeanette Winterson, had the audience gripped in terror. Mrs Anderson’s background dialogue brought an extra layer to proceedings, but it was her shrill whistle blast that really made everybody jump - you should have seen their faces! Proof that they were fully immersed in the story; proof of the power of reading.

The department's reading schemes this year have proved both popular and successful. Accelerated Reader, now in its fourth year, is a reading programme for our year 7 and 8 students. Each book that has been read has a quiz attached to it and the answers can determine the students’ comprehension of the story and understanding of challenging words. Students have commented on the fun nature of the quizzes, enjoying the challenge and learning meaning and context of new words. Reading Buddies pairs slightly less confident readers from Year 7 with a sixth form ‘buddy’ who they read to in the Library every Thursday during form time.

History department

The History Department has now completed its third and final year as an Associate Department. All knowledge and research has now been embedded into KS3 scheme of work. They have continued to research ex pupils of Ulverston Grammar School, using information that has come forward from members of the local community and have added this to the Remembrance section of our school website. The department have also been able to extend and develop our research into ancestors of existing pupils: on the Year 9 trip to the Battlefields in Oct 2016, a pupil was able to research the history of two ancestors before the trip and to find their memorials whilst in France and Belgium, which formed part of school assemblies and the school’s Remembrance Service. After the Battlefields Trip the pupils contributed works of poetry and prose which have been collated into a booklet of writing and has been widely read in school and by members of the local community via our Remembrance Day Service.

The member of staff who went on the trip and the accompanying English staff have fed into CPD for the whole department and we have been able to incorporate this into our Yr 9 lessons. Two pupils from the school entered the Conscription writing competition linked to Red, White and Blue Day last term. Their postcards from the trenches went into the national competition and they came second and third respectively in the 11 plus age group.

Music department

During 2017, UVHS Music Department attended over 20 Swing Band/Big Band/Jazz Combo concerts all over the region, a spectacular Wind Band concert with the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines in May, and a 7-day concert tour to Germany in July.

The number of students opting for Music continues to buck the national trends and Summer’s examination results were excellent especially at GCSE, where the 27-strong class achieved over 50% A* and just under 80% A*/A. Five of the 9-strong A2 class have gone on to study music (Royal Holloway, Birmingham, Huddersfield & Winchester Universities and Leeds College of Music). There are currently 20 students studying Music at AS/A2, and 49 in Years 10 & 11.

The Primary Tuition Scheme continues to reap rewards with 98 Year 7 students applying to take music lessons in September. Overall, over 25% of the school body receive instrumental/vocal tuition in school resulting in large numbers taking part in weekly rehearsals. The Wind Band concert tour to Germany saw 89 students take to the stage and deliver three phenomenal 2-hour concerts, and the 45-strong Swing Band will be travelling to Paris to perform 2 concerts over Bastille weekend.

The department's partnership with the Royal Marines Band Service continues to flourish – as well as an amazing visit to Ulverston in May, which saw two sell-out audiences enjoy the very best of Services music alongside our own Wind and Swing Bands, Year 10, 12 and 13 Music students were also able to go to HMS Collingwood on work experience. They currently have 5 former students in the Band Service, with two more starting in September.

2017 ended on a real high for the Department and school with Richard Butler, the Head of Performing Arts (and Assistant Headteacher), being named in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List: he has been awarded an MBE for his services to music education.