West Craven High School has been awarded a £1,000 Outdoor Essentials Grant from The Ernest Cook Trust.

This funding will help us to develop our Nature and Nurture programme, creating inspiring outdoor spaces for learning, well-being and nature connection. From wildflower meadows and raised beds to bug hotels and bird boxes, our students will soon have even more opportunities to learn and thrive in the great outdoors!

Staff and students at West Craven High School are celebrating after the school received the Optimus Education Excellence in Pupil Development Award.

The award offers a structured framework for schools to evaluate and enrich their pastoral curriculum while supporting students’ personal attributes and attitudes such as self-confidence, resilience and discipline. With a focus on involving local and national organisations, it helps to prepare students for life in modern Britain.

Key to achieving the award is:

• Developing a whole school curriculum where the skills and knowledge for personal development are embedded.
• Setting high expectations for pupil behaviour and conduct, including punctuality and attendance.
• Promoting positive attitudes from students towards their own learning, towards each other, and towards the wider community.
• Engaging with local groups and parents to deliver enrichment activities that develop students’ confidence, responsibility and leadership skills.
• Actively enlisting the support of national and international agencies to help raise students’ aspirations for their future.
• Committing to high-quality, ongoing staff CPD so that all staff can build and support students’ personal development.

Achieving the Excellence in Pupil Development Award follows on from West Craven receiving Optimus Education’s Leading Parent Partnership Award two years ago. This Award celebrates schools who deliver outstanding engagement with all groups of parents.

Assistant Principal, Mrs Robertson led on collating the evidence for both awards. She said: “We are delighted to have been presented with a second Optimus Education Award which celebrates the work we have put in to ensuring that our curriculum is preparing all of our students for life after West Craven High School.”

In his report, Award Verifier, Colin Noble, said: “At West Craven, students are very much viewed and treated as individuals with the school’s curriculum, pastoral care, structure, processes and partnerships consequently shaped by their perceived needs.

“The behaviour of students, both in lessons and in informal time at breaks and lunchtime is a strength of the school. Students were engaged and industrious in lessons and polite, courteous and well-behaved in corridors and at the end of school.

“Another strength is the number of clubs enjoyed by the students at lunchtime and after school, ranging from karaoke, a plethora of sports to chess in the library.

“It was also very impressive to see the extent and depth to which the school is engaging with its local community to promote students’ personal development. Perhaps the most outstanding example of this is the sponsorship of two students by the local Rotary Club to experience the Edinburgh Festival as part of a local theatre group.”

As part of British Science Week, students took part in a range of Science related extracurricular trips.

55 year 9 students visited Manchester, first to the Museum of Illusions for lots of mind bending optical illusions including a vortex tunnel which really made your head spin! They then went to Manchester Museum to explore their collection of archaeological treasures, weird and wonderful animals from around the world, Chinese historical artefacts and dinosaur fossils. They even got to meet Stan the T rex!

Our British Science Week trip for Year 10 was to Chester Zoo. The students braved the bat cave, although there were some shrieks of fright when the bats flew close by! They got up close to three very impressive big cats - lions, tigers and jaguars. There were lots of cheeky monkeys, orangutangs and apes. The zoo has animals and birds from all over the world from penguins to crocodiles, elephants to flamingos.

Groups of children from Pendle Education Trust’s five schools pitched their sustainability ideas to a panel of judges at Nelson and Colne College, in a bid to secure funding to implement their ideas.

The panel, made up of Pendle Education Trust’s Chief Executive, Anita Ghidotti, Joseph Ferguson from Silentnight, Jon Horsfield from Nelson and Colne College and Sue Young from Taylor Shaw, heard from children from the Trust’s primary and secondary schools about how they believe they can make their schools greener.

Ideas included creating a sustainable planting area with bird feeders at Castercliff Primary Academy, developing a Solar Powered Irrigation System at Casterton Primary Academy, promoting eco-friendly ways of travelling to school at Pendle Primary Academy, purchasing high-vis vests, gloves and litter pickers to restore Gib Hill in Colne, creating a living walkway at Colne Primet Academy and refurbishing the outdoor space in West Craven High School’s quad.

The panel of judges were so impressed with the ideas from all of the groups that they awarded each school with £200 to kickstart their plans. The money was donated by Barnoldswick bed manufacturers, Silentnight and Pendle Education Trust’s catering provider, Taylor Shaw.

The day ended with the judges, children and school staff helping to plant some of 1,500 trees which had been donated by Lancashire County Council as part of a project to create a micro-wood next to Nelson and Colne College’s 3G pitches.

Anita Ghidotti said: “It was fantastic hearing so much passion from our children for these sustainability projects. We all know that we need to do more to be greener and the best people to champion this are our young people. We can’t wait to see their ideas come to life and our schools become greener.

“I’d like to say a huge thank you to our judges and staff at Nelson and Colne College for the time they spent with our children and for giving them ideas to develop their green plans further.”

A former West Craven High School student, who is now studying Medicine at the University of Manchester, took to the stage to inspire current students at its annual Star Awards event.

Samantha Kendall, who attended Nelson and Colne College before progressing to the University of Manchester, spoke about her experience of university and her aspirations after completing her degree.

Awards were presented to students for their academic, attendance, sporting and extra-curricular achievements and last year’s GCSE students returned to collect subject and achievement prizes as well as their GCSE certificates. The audience were also entertained by the school choir performing 'What About Us?' by Pink and 'This Is Me' from the Greatest Showman.

West Craven High School Principal, Mr Bates said: “We had a fantastic evening with our current and former students, their families and our special guests, celebrating a wide range of achievements.

“These young people have demonstrated what it means to be 'Star' West Craven students. It isn't about getting the highest grades or the best scores in tests; it's about hard work, determination to succeed, persevere when things go wrong, and demonstrating mutual respect for everyone in their community. These are the students that make us proud of what we do as teachers.

“Congratulations to all of the award winners on the night, especially our Class of 2024 whose progress and achievements we are looking forward to following over the next few years.”