Love Lane Lives
The history of sugar in Liverpool and the effects of the closure of the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery, Love Lane
Hillside Secondary School, Bootle takes on the White Stuff in Specialist Science week!
Written by Ron Noon at 22:59 on Monday, September 14th 2009
On the school website is this notice:
“This year the theme for the week is ‘Sugar – its impact on Liverpool’s heritage’. The pupils will be developing their knowledge and understanding throughout the week by taking part in a range of cross-curricular activities. We have lots of exciting things planned including; trips to the International Slavery exhibition, work at the North Sefton City Learning Centre, visiting artists and musicians as well as talks from ex-Tate & Lyle workers. It promises to be a ‘jam-packed’ week of creative learning. ‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness’”
When I talked recently to Wendy Daly the Assistant Head teacher about the outstanding results Hillside had achieved she emphasised the extent to which her colleagues were “totally committed to providing pupils with a full range of opportunities in their time with us, and we are determined not to become an exam conveyor”. That said Hillside is now in the top 2% of schools nationally for the “value we add to pupils achievement and attainment” a remarkable accomplishment for a school whose intake is not from leafy suburbs with “obsessively League conscious parents”. (In fact this is an area of severe socio-economic disadvantage and using ‘the school deprivation indicator’ it is approximately in the bottom 4% of all schools. At almost 34% the percentage of pupils entitled to a free school meal is well over twice the national average as is the percentage of pupils with special needs. “Value added” is a classic understatment of the real life choices that ALL pupils at Hillside are provided at the end of their studies.)
Wendy is convinced that their success stems from “having a varied and exciting curriculum which is tailored to the needs of every pupil”. That’s also my understanding of the much used and unfortunately much abused C word, comprehensive! The philosophy behind next week’s curricular perfectly captures that holistic outlook. “Specialist week gives pupils and staff opportunity to broaden their knowledge of a focus area together. We all learn something new during specialist week and the buzz around the school is almost palpable. It really kick starts the new school year and all pupils look forward to it - it has become part of our school calendar and this years is particularly exciting because we are focussing on part of our local culture and helping pupils realise the importance of sugar and Liverpool on the world stage.”
Liverpool John Moores where I teach is very enthusiastic about community projects and Hillside’s is an exceptional one which the University is prepared to give as much support and encouragement to as possible. That’s part of my job but I’ll also be making sure that this website covers the whole school curricular next week. It is not every week that school subjects from maths, science and Information Technology through to drama, English, and Modern Languages focus on the white stuff. (The rumour is of sugar bombs being made in science laboratories but I repeat that’s only a rumour.) Leon Seth may have been the most successful sugar film maker of recent years but he’s got competition from even younger talent looming on the school horizon. It will be brilliant to witness the making of a new film and to read the blogs which the young sweet fighters from “Breeze Hill” will be putting together with the use of the schools IT facilities and North Sefton City Learning Centre. This will be an exciting and challenging week in the life of a truly comprehensive school which just goes from strength to strength.