Issue 11 • July 2016

Issue 11 • July 2016

What’s happening at BCHS with Crosshill
Keep Your Head Up and Think Positive
At Blackburn Central High School we believe that
every child deserves a champion, an adult who will
never give up on them, who understands the power
of connection and insists that they become the
best that they can possibly be. To me, teachers are
a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity,
knowledge, and wisdom within their students.
Our Year 11 students, who worked extremely hard
preparing for and in their GCSE examinations, have
recently left BCHS for the final time; so I’d like to
use this opportunity to offer them some additional
advice, which could also be useful to the rest of the
extended BCHS with Crosshill community.
The decision to change and grow is a powerful tool that can help you move forward, but you need to make a
conscious choice to develop yourself. It’s easy to feel aimless when you’re not working towards a concrete
goal, so narrow in on what you’d like to accomplish in the near future. What do you want to achieve? There
is no “perfect” answer, but you can find an answer through trial and error.
Now that you have something to aim for, brainstorm for ways to get yourself to where you want to be. Look
to people who have already done what you’d like to do, and follow their example or ask them for advice.
You are more than capable enough to achieve whatever you want to achieve, but you might forget that when
you hit an obstacle. A success list, a collection of your accomplishments, can help to remind you why you
shouldn’t let go of your confidence. Record all accomplishments, regardless of size, in a book or on a blog.
When you start to doubt yourself look at all of the positive things you’ve done to remind yourself that you
can accomplish your goals. Large accomplishments are really just a collection of small accomplishments.
Don’t ever think that your accomplishments are too small to be proud of.
Set your own benchmarks, some people progress faster than others. Life is not a sprint; it’s a marathon,
focus on what you can do to improve yourself instead of comparing yourself to other people. Keep growing,
setting goals, and moving forward, one step at a time, and you will continually impress yourself. It doesn’t
matter how slowly we go. What matters is that we keep going.
As Jean-Luc Picard expressed: “Things
are only impossible until they’re not.
Seize the time… live now; make now
always the most precious time. Now
will never come again. Inside you is the
potential to make yourself better, and
that is what it is to be human. To make
yourself more than you are. Make it so!”
Mrs Atkinson
Headteacher
2

Restorative Justice
Thirteen students from BCHS have successfully
completed their training to become Restorative
Justice facilitators.
Restorative Justice
Schools Programme
Have you been involved in a
situation where you have been:
Had personal property damaged?
In a class disrupted by others?
Bullied or called names?
Assaulted?
Big Bang Fair
A group of our science students attended
the Big Bang Fair at Birmingham’s National
Exhibition Centre. The Big Bang Fair is an awardwinning
combination of exciting theatre shows,
interactive workshops and exhibits, as well as
careers information from STEM professionals.
This event allowed our students the exciting and
rewarding opportunity to see the different career
options available to them, along with trying various
experiments from making slime, using the Stixx
machine, testing their reaction time and building
robots from LEGO. The group had a fabulous day
of discovery and were again a credit to our school.
Do you want to:
Have your say?
Be understood?
Solve the problem?
Restorative Justice
may be for you!
For information
After undergoing intensive training from see Ms PC Rathore David
Pascoe, from the Early Action Team of Lancashire
Police and Joyce Carne from the Youth Justice
AJA/MRA/ILL-473 7-3-16
Service, the students have learnt how to resolve
conflict and disagreements amongst their peers.
Restorative Justice is a process in which a
perpetrator and the person affected by their
actions are able to sit in a controlled environment
to discuss the incident which has caused upset or
disagreement. It explores ways to resolve issues,
by seeing things from each other’s perspective
in order to bring about a resolution in which both
parties feel supported and listened to. It will be
used in school to address certain behaviours.
Ms Rathore, Pastoral Manager for Year 9 said: “The
students have really worked hard at their training,
which involved listening skills, role play and acting
out scenarios. They are now fully trained and we
have rolled out the Restorative Justice system
within school since Easter. We are proud to be the
only school in Blackburn with Darwen who is using
Restorative Justice and we are happy to support
other schools if they wish to develop this in their
schools too.”
Building Bridges
Nearly 200 primary school students visited
Blackburn Central High School to take part in a
‘Building Bridges’ event.
Throughout the day our visitors took part in
a variety of activities, including pizza making,
calligraphy, storytelling, model making, drama and
the five pillars challenge. These activities are used
to help bridge the gap between communities and
provide the students a better understanding of
one another.
The day was a wonderful opportunity for the local
primary school students to interact and make
friends with other students in their community, and
to help promote the ethos and values of Blackburn
Central High School with Crosshill.
3

Shared Values
A dozen students from Shevington High School
in Wigan visited Blackburn Central High School as
part of a Shared Values event.
EAL students related
amazing stories about
their lives in countries
such as Spain, Romania,
Kuwait, Syria, Albania,
and Bulgaria.
Students from both
schools worked in
teams to create art
that represented both
schools’ shared values.
Team PEAR (Peace,
Equality and Respect)
created a united
world with pictures of
themselves around it
with their likes, dislikes,
and hopes for the
future.
Students and staff at BCHS cooked an excellent
array of foods from all over the world, so the Shared
Values group could enjoy a lunch of Spanish paella,
samosas, Syrian pastries, Hungarian biscuits, and
Romanian stuffed peppers with exotic Syrian tea.
Able & Talented Challenge
As part of our support programme for Most Able
students, a group of Year 9 students travelled
to London with Mr Farrell, Mrs Sinclair and Mrs
Elliott, to take part in a Challenge Day at the
University of Central London.
After the long drive we stretched our legs and
visited St Paul’s Cathedral, the Royal Courts of
Justice, Downing Street and the British Museum.
We stayed overnight in a youth hostel and the
following day travelled to the University. The
students had a tour of the campus, took part in
group activities and discussed university life.
The students had a fantastic experience which has
inspired them and given them food for thought.
The Shared Values event was a great success, and
a brilliant opportunity for BCHS and Shevington
students to meet and learn about other cultures.
Thank you to the staff and students of Shevington
who joined us on the day, you were excellent
guests.
4

Photography Competition
Last term Mrs Cahill ran a Geography Photography
Competition for both students and staff at BCHS
with Crosshill. The subject of the photographs
had to be something Geographical either Human
Geography such as buildings, people doing
something geographical, even just being outdoors,
or Physical Geography such as a stunning view, or
something from nature like flowers or animal life.
These winners were selected from an amazing
number of entries...
1st place - Wynkyla (Year 10)
3rd place - Mrs Hussain
2nd place - Sabaa (Year 8)
3rd place - Nazneen (Year 8)
2nd place - Mr James
1st place - Mrs Bowker
Holocaust Memorial Day
Wednesday 27th January 2016 was Holocaust
Memorial Day, dedicated to the remembrance
of those who suffered in the Holocaust, under
Nazi persecution, and in subsequent genocides
in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
First held in 2001, the date is the anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the
Soviet Union in 1945, 71 years ago.
To mark the occasion Miss Craig took a group
of Year 9 students to Blackburn Town Hall for a
commemoration service, where BCHS student
Howwa, read aloud a prayer.
A group of 13 students also
visited Shevington High
School for a Holocaust Super
Learning Day, where they
were involved in different
sessions centred on the loss
of life during the Holocaust.
These sessions included a survivor testimony
from Joanna Millan, who was sent to Terezín
concentration camp in 1943, and an art workshop
where the students made butterflies as a way
of symbolising the need to be tolerant and the
importance of freedom for all human beings. The
butterflies were displayed with the theme of this
year’s Holocaust Memorial Day – “Don’t stand by.”
5

What are we learning? Macbeth, fortunately!
Creativity is the highest test of whether we have
understood an idea. With some air dry foam clay,
a few modelling tools, tracing paper and some felt
tip pens, 9A1 and I were going on an adventure …
Some of the best ideas come from colliding two
separate ideas. In ‘Macbeth’ there are lots of ideas.
We decided to make some of them collide: fate
and fortune, superstition, appearance and reality
and celebration banquets. What did we decide
to do? We made fortune cookies to show our
understanding of characters and theme in the
banquet scene from ‘Macbeth’.
9A1 used lots of skills; some were skills that were familiar to us in English, like working out what fate a
character experienced in the play or using aphoristic language (deliberately vague language), working
within a team, problem solving (the need to see the fortune and have it encased in a cookie created lots of
problem solving discussion), and using Microsoft Publisher; and some were less familiar in English, such as
working with clay.
During this work, Natasha showed us creative education at its best. She flew with the idea of creating an
instruction sheet on how to form a fortune cookie from dough, creating a prototype, modelling how to
create the cookies to other members of the class and making links with local businesses (she persuaded
her dad to let us have some professional packaging for the cookies). She showed great organisation and
flair. Would I take Natasha on as an apprentice if I worked in a creative industry? In a heartbeat! My only fear
would be that she would need a pay rise very quickly and probably be better than the boss within months.
All the class enjoyed the work and you can see the fruits of their
labour in the photographs. Trying to motivate students to enjoy
‘Macbeth’ can sometimes be a hard sell, but the Blackburn Central
students were coming to the classroom asking if they could work on
their project. I call that a Shakespearean success.
I will hand the last words over to Natasha who did so much to
make this element of our learning as good as it was: “I myself
love the thought of Shakespeare and all his plays so when Mrs
Shuttleworth came to me with the idea of making fortune cookies
based on the celebratory banquet Macbeth has after being
coronated it gave me a blast of enthusiasm. It was exciting to
learn about Shakespeare and English in a whole new creative way,
it being the cherry on the top! I loved the fact that I got to go out
myself and do the extra work to make the process go that much
quicker, perfecting the best technique to actually fold the fortune
cookies and then going and finding the best way to make it more
appealing, coming to the conclusion of using publisher to make
a collage using appearance verses reality quotes from ‘Macbeth’
itself to make more packaging for the cookies and to highlight
them in more detail. Overall the experience was rejuvenating,
bringing English to the doorstep of enjoyment in learning.”
6

Students take inspiration from Falklands hero Simon Weston
Simon Weston’s visit to Blackburn Central High School was
an experience both staff and students won’t forget in a
hurry, he began inspiring everyone as soon as he arrived.
During the Falkland Islands’ campaign in 1982, Welsh
Guardsman, Simon was on board the RFA Sir Galahad when
Argentine jets bombed the vessel, which was loaded with fuel
and ammunition, he suffered terrible burns. His injuries were
so appalling his own mother couldn’t recognise him when he
arrived home. His face had melted in the searing heat.
Simon is well known for his struggle to overcome his injuries
and redefine his role in life. His message is one of triumph
over adversity and seizing the moment.
Simon is an inspiring motivational speaker with over 25 years’
experience. As part of Blackburn Central High School’s
English Heroes topic Simon talked about overcoming
adversity, having a positive mental attitude and working hard
to achieve his goals.
During lunchtime a group of Year 11 students had the
opportunity to speak with Simon about his own experiences
and how he managed to motivate himself to overcome his
difficulties and rise above the obstacles he had encountered.
Throughout the 30 minutes the students listened in silence
as Simon presented them with aims and objectives that they
could apply to their own lives.
In the afternoon Simon met the whole of Year 11 where he spoke about how he had overcome his difficulties
and what he believed they should consider the most important thing in life. He said, ‘A positive mental
attitude is the key and you should not be bothered about what other people say or think about you; you are
your own vehicle for success’.
The students were left full of positivity and have, hopefully taken a lot from Simon Weston’s inspirational
and motivational talk. The question and answer session could have gone on for hours, it was a fantastic
experience for all concerned. Simon is a brilliant example for the students of Blackburn Central High School.
World Book Day 2016
In celebration of World Book Day the English Department
went “all out” and dressed as their favourite literary characters.
The students at Blackburn Central High School enjoyed a
day being taught by a number of characters including: Wally,
Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, Katniss Everdeen from The
Hunger Games novel, Dracula, The Queen of Hearts from
Alice in Wonderland, Beatrice “Tris” Prior from the Divergent
novels, The Fairy Godmother and Desperate Dan.
7

8
#TEAMBCHS
Netball
Our students represented BCHS in the Year 7
Blackburn Schools Netball Tournament. The team
easily won 4 games against Darwen Aldridge
Community Academy, Pleckgate High School,
Tauheedul Girl’s High School and St Bede’s High
School and drew against Westholme School and
Saint Wilfirds, securing second place in the B group.
The girls had a very tiring evening but still continued
to play to an incredible level to secure second
position and represented BCHS in a positive manner
throughout the tournament. Congratulations
to Alenah, Kiran, Laura, Jordan, Zubaida, Sindija,
Aamainah, Charlie, and team captain Ruckaya.
Judo
Students Harrison and Kamil proudly took part in the
Lancashire open area Judo squad training session
in Bacup. They both performed well throughout a
day that consisted of an hour of ground training,
then an hour of hill sprints, carrying logs and tyres;
and finished with a final hour of judo.
BCHS Judo students also attended three big
competitions over last term, bringing home five
medals from the Lancashire Championships:
Harrison won a Gold and Silver, Connor and Adam
both won Silvers, and Kamil returned home with a
bronze medal.
Harrison also picked up a Silver medal at the Craven
Judo Open Championships after three solid wins,
and a Bronze at the prestigious North West Open
Judo Championships.
Come along and join Mr Burn’s Judo club every
Monday after school in the dance studio.
Football
Our Year 10 6-a-side
football team finished
runners-up in the
Blackburn with Darwen
schools tournament,
unfortunately getting
beaten in extra-time
with a golden goal
from the Our Ladies
and Saint John team.
Sky Sports Athlete Mentor
In conjunction with Sky Sports, Charlotte Hartley,
ex-England and Great Britain hockey player,
came into school at the end of February to work
with a group of students who had been identified
as having leadership potential in PE.
Charlotte started playing hockey at high school
after being encouraged by her PE teacher. She
quickly went on to play for both England Under-18
and Under-21 and at the age of 17 was playing for
the England Senior team, winning Gold in the KT
Cup in Korea. One of the youngest players selected
to represent England in the 2006 Commonwealth
Games, where the team won Bronze, Charlotte
also won Gold at the Junior Olympics as a member
of the Great Britain Youth team.
Now working as an Athlete Mentor for Sky Sports,
Charlotte inspires and motivates today’s youth into
following their dreams. She believes that “nothing
is too small to know and nothing is too big to
attempt” and that you need to realise you are the
author of your own magnificent story and every
day you have the opportunity to write a new page.
“I take great pride in the part I play in motivating
and inspiring young people to take up sport. Whilst
at high school, I would have loved the opportunity
to meet someone who had competed at a high
level. For me, it’s just a great way of sharing my
experiences and knowledge to educate and help
others choose the right paths in life.”
Charlotte spent the day working with the group of
BCHS students to nurture and develop leadership
skills and left the students feeling more confident
using these skills in future lessons. To be involved
in this project and hear Charlotte’s success story in
her own words was a fantastic opportunity for the
students.

Dance Festival
Student from BCHS with Crosshill participated
in Blackburn with Darwen’s annual celebration
of dance at King George’s Hall. A record 1000
students from 26 primary and secondary schools
took part in the 11th Dance Festival.
Director of Children’s Services Linda Clegg said:
“Blackburn with Darwen Schools and Education
wishes to thank all the performers and their staff
for continuing to make the annual celebration of
dance such a memorable event.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for our young
people to express themselves through creative
choreography and for them to shine on the stage
in front of an appreciative audience. We recognise
and value all the hard work, time and energy that
has been put into each individual dance.”
Noor, Naazima, Alicia, Jordan, Hannah, Wiktoria, and
Yvenya were amazing and showed a massive support
to all the other schools. BCHS with Crosshill are
proud of them for representing their school in such
a great manner and
showing their best
performance to
the other schools.
In addition, Sana
and Rumana came
to support the girls
and assisted with
make-up and hair
to help the girls
look the part.
Sport Relief
In support of Sport
Relief 2016 BCHS held
a number of events
during the weeks run
up to our Wear your
Trainers to School Day
on Friday 18th March,
which raised over £700.
All week staff organised
activities in the sports
hall such as face
painting, glitter tattoos,
a selfie station, balloon
pop, ultimate lemons,
and water pistol alley.
Wednesday the sports hall also hosted a teacher
versus student penalty shootout, and Thursday
a students vs teachers water balloon alley. Friday
our astroturf hosted the big event of the week, a
Teacher and Student relay race, which was won
(controversially) by Mr Donaldson’s team.
Trainer Design Competition
We are pleased to announce that Hadiqa in Year 9
was runner up in the Wynsors Hi-Tec trainer design
competition.
One of 6 entrants whose designs were put online for a
worldwide vote, Hadiqa won £50, plus a £50 voucher for
Wynsors and won another £50 for Blackburn Central High
School. Thank you to everybody who voted for Hadiqa and
supported Blackburn Central High School.
9

Year 9 were asked to write a section of a
story, that kept the events moving forward
whilst also paying attention to describing the
setting, action, thoughts and feelings.
Both these stories were inspired by a section
of the novel ‘Divergent’ by Veronica Roth.
Thawing by Minaa
‘Wow, it’s really kicked in.’
I splay across a rock, semi-frozen. The
finger-deep layer of snow against my back
softens the lumpy stone. My eyelids soak
up the sun’s amber rays. After three years
of winter’s endless darkness, I am making
the most of this serene breath of sunlight.
‘Jasmine!’ shouts Jason.
‘I’m coming. Calm down,’ I say, muttering the
second bit. But I don’t move, steal a few
more seconds of White Air Forest.
The branches hang low with the weight of
the snow. They are like my mother’s arms
when she used to return from shopping.
The green is still there under the brilliant
white, contrasting perfectly like a snow
globe. I’ll need the snow shoes today, while
the layers look solid, I would sink right up to
my knees or beyond.
The sky is clear for now, a perfect,
uninterrupted blue. It’s odd to imagine that
the grass is still down there, surviving as
best as it can, entombed in the icy layers.
White Air must have looked like a winter
wonderland when we were entering.
Years ago, the mud froze solid, as hard as
any road. Now it lies covered in a blanket
of pristine white and we will never see its
earthen brown dirt. Walking has become
ten times more difficult, even in snow
shoes it takes more energy. Every time we
leave our hide out, I wrap in the jacket my
mother had given me, hood up and scarf
wound over my face, yet still the cold air
penetrates right to my skin. Every breath
I take gives my heat to the air in visible
puffs.
I could sit here drinking it all in, listening
to the silence that hangs so thickly in the
frigid air, although, I must keep moving to
stay warm. I have my snow shoes, jacket
and scarf; it’s time to make tracks.
A thin layer of ice cracks and Jason leaps
to my side. ‘Coming, were you?’ I smile at
him, haul myself to my feet and slide down
the rock, tiny avalanches following me. We
begin our descent towards our hideout.
Towards home.
Icicles drip in the brightness, like inverted
mountains: glistening, bejewelled, dazzling,
sparkling, mesmerising. I watch the sun fall
from the sky lifelessly, exhausted from
fighting this winter.
The wind starts to bite at my face with
ferocity. Bitter and sharp, the air flies
towards me, eager to suck every remaining
drop from my stone-cold body. Thin, frozen
puddles crack under my boots. The bitter
cold seeps through my woollen mittens,
numbing my fingers until they feel stiff.
Mother always made me her home-made
soup on these crisp winter days, chicken
soup in a rose-coloured bowl, warming us
down to our toes.
There I go again, thinking about my mother.
I can’t help it; today we had trekked out the
furthest we have ever gone. Why? Only
to find mother. The most recent memory
– three years ago – was the day we got
separated. The winter had taken everyone
by surprise, which is when the chaos and
panic began. My mum had sent me away
with some other kids. That’s where I had
met Jason. Our lives had changed forever
but I always had hope.
I pushed the thoughts out of my mind as it
began to overpower me. We reached the
end of White Air…
The street looked like an unfinished painting.
So much of the canvas was still perfectly
white as if waiting for the hands to return.
Streetlights were misty in the snowfall. Ice
gently blankets the sidewalks and streets.
The milky moon is an ornament, hung in the
night sky. But all in all, it was deserted. My
body filled with relief, we’d had too many
encounters with people which always lead
to violence.
We struggle through the knee-deep snow
to our hideout. Using our already-numb
fingers, we scoop the snow away from the
rough wooden door and we use our bodies
to wedge it open. Inside, it’s as bare and
barren as the outside, no furniture. But it
was something.
10

Ruthless by Ibrahim
I think it would be agreeable to keep a low
profile in the one place that I thought was
fictional, Ruthless. The people from the
Locust clan seemed very on edge when
they told stories of this place. The way they
hunched when they told their accounts of
that place still chills me to the bone.
Zain and I jumped but rather than landing on
the ground in the village square, we landed
on a single path in nowhere special, but it
was the place the Locusts were afraid of:
Ruthless.
‘Owl,’ the cry came from behind me. ‘We
left our flip flops behind,’ said Zain. Too late
now, I thought.
I don’t understand why it is called ‘Ruthless’.
There were endless plains for grass to my
sides. A breeze whistled through the leaves,
darted through the grass and caused it to
lean towards us. It was like each blade was
inviting us in.
A dazzling sunset blinded our view of the
route but there was something very dead
about it. As I looked hard, I saw the sun was
not a yellow ochre but rather crimson. It
was also very low in the sky yet shined so
bright. The clouds also weren’t affected
somehow by the gentle breeze and stood
tranquillised.
Further back, a blue and lilac bruised the
sunset.
Not everything is dead though. White dots
slowly come into view and I realise they are
the gift of new life: lambs. Bullets seem to
pierce the sky with a whistle. They land and
a gentle chirp arises: baby birds.
‘Wow!’ I said.
‘Yeah, wow!’ replies Zain. ‘I didn’t know
sparrows could fly that fast.’
Suddenly, what seem like black thorns erupt
around us in a 360 degree cage, barricading
us in from all sides. They grow longer and
suddenly stop. Then a head emerges and a
full body starts to rise. Four legs come
into view and full figures are now visible.
Oryx, by the thousands.
Out of the blue, a rumbling starts and
stones start to bounce higher each time
they touch the ground.
‘It’s a stampede!’ I shout. ‘Get on to one.’
We both jumped and landed, not on our
feet but on our bums. Zain was almost
skewered in the worst place a boy can be
skewered. I grabbed on to the horns and
took control. Zain wrapped his arms around
my waist and we rode in the direction along
the path; into the heart of Ruthless…
We’d sat on the animal for about five
minutes, when, in the very far distance, a
great barrier arose. The oryx started to
turn away before they came into contact
with this wall.
‘Grab one,’ I said.
Zain reached out and grabbed a horn of
the closest oryx before it veered away. He
pulled it closer, lifted a leg and put it over
the back of the animal, then his bum and
body, and last of all his leg. We rode on and
stopped before the wall. There seemed to
be no way through it so we moved along it
in opposite directions. This cornered off to
another wall. By the time we have circled it
all, we meet together on the opposite side
we started. Here, though, there was a large
wooden door, or, rather, not a door but
a drawbridge. These were the four walls
surrounding the city of Ruthless.
I recalled the whistle the Locusts used to
enter the city. Zain mimicked the whistle
and the bridge automatically fell. Dust
kicked up and flew into our eyes. After we
had rubbed our eyes, we entered slowly.
‘Keep your eyes open,’ I whispered.
The sun hung over our head still bright and
red. A constant red bounced off the walls
and we could make out many bungalows. We
heard tiny creaks and we saw many doors
open a crack. Eyes stared at us and many
whispers arose. These whispers spread like
wildfires. Suddenly, footsteps thundered
around us. Men in red armour surrounded
us, lowered spears poised to strike at our
heads. I can’t exactly make out where the
tannoy comes from but it says, ‘We will
escort you for questioning’.
11

Lights! Camera! Action!
Our Year 11 GCSE Drama Group performed their
exam piece ‘Taken Dreams’ to staff, parents and
students. The performance was professional,
engaging and a great success!
The group were given the
Shakespearean quote
“We are such stuff as
dreams are made on…”
taken from the Tempest
and then had to research
a topic that they believe
suited the quote. The
group decided to create
a performance based
upon the Holocaust.
Despite this being a very
tragic event in history,
the students showed
a high level of maturity
throughout. Each
character was stripped
of their identity and
given a number however,
they still spoke about
their hopes and dreams
even when faced with
death.
We are extremely proud of the GCSE Drama Group.
They are hardworking individuals and this year they
have shown just how talented they are. Excellent,
positive feedback has boosted their confidence
and team morale. One audience member said:
“They felt like they had been taken on a journey
with the characters”.
Bravo Year 11! Well done to Shanwaz, Natasha,
Chantelle, Luke and Mia.
Music from Stage and Screen
Heather and Lucy, two Blackburn Central High
School Year 11 students, were invited to perform
as guest vocal soloists with the Blackburn and
Darwen Band, at their concert “Music from
Stage & Screen” on Sunday 7th February 2016 at
Thwaites Empire Theatre, Blackburn.
Both Heather and Lucy were amazing, as you can
see for yourself in the videos on the BCHS website.
1200 Lights Charity CD
In May, fifteen members of the BCHS Choir visited
The Grand in Clitheroe to record two songs for a
charity CD on behalf of the 1200 Lights Project.
The CD recording was
organised by Child
Action North-West
to highlight the need
for foster carers and
was released during
Foster Care Fortnight.
It was a brilliant experience for the students to be
able to work in a professional recording studio,
whilst also knowing that they were helping a charity.
12

Year 10 GCSE Art Work
Our Year 10 Art students have been producing work on the subject of distortion, here are some examples:
Miriam
Lewis
Nimra
Sanah
Raya
Jessica
Tasneem
Lyrical Madness
On Monday 14th March the BCHS Year 10 music
group organised a concert entitled “Lyrical
Madness”, as part of their coursework, and to
showcase the musical talents here at BCHS with
Crosshill.
There were some fantastic performances from
students in all year groups, ranging from classical
violin solos to group pop performances and beatboxing.
Tomorrow’s Engineers
As part of the Tomorrow’s Engineers event
our students learnt about different types of
renewable energy, and with this information they
constructed their own solar powered car. The car
the students constructed travelled the furthest
– a whopping 30 meters!
The event also included the final exam
performances from the Year 11 music group and
managed to raise £100 in aid of Child Action North-
West.
13

Food for Thought
BCHS with Crosshill recently held fund raising
events to support the Food for Thought
charity, based at Al-Imdaad Foundation in
Audley.
Food for Thought provides restaurant quality
food every Sunday for homeless and low income
families at just £1 per meal. They also support
homeless people by giving them a thermos
that can be filled with a hot drink in participating
hot food and drink outlets in Blackburn with
Darwen for which Al-Imdaad will pick up the bill.
To help raise money, our staff brought in baby
photos of themselves which were used on a
quiz sheet and sold to students for 20p. The
students won prizes by matching the baby
photos to members of staff.
Blackburn Foodbank
We are approaching the time of year when
Blackburn Foodbank reaches its busiest time –
the 6 week summer holiday. Many families whose
children are on free school meals will not be able
to access their meals due to school being closed.
This is the second year we will be supporting the
Foodbank and we will be dropping off our donations,
as close to the summer break as possible.
In particular, we would really
appreciate it if you could
donate one or more of the
following:
• Tinned fruit or vegetables
• Tinned meat or fish
• UHT fruit juice
• Biscuits or cereal
BCHS staff also took part in a quiz night at
Kebabish in Blackburn, which helped raise the
grand total of money for this worthwhile cause
to £347.87.
We would like to thank Morrisons for their
generosity in providing raffle prizes and
Kebabish for playing host to our fundraising
event.
It is important that we are aware of those in our
community who need an extra bit of help, and
organisations who support those in need. We
are proud of the strong sense of charity and
giving that encompasses everyone at BCHS,
whether that is staff, students or parents.
14
For some of our families, we are now in the Holy
month of Ramadan – a time of spiritual reflection
and contribution to charities. Please could you
consider the Foodbank during this special time?

Term Dates 2015-2016
Summer Term 2016
Closed Tuesday 5 July or
Thursday 7 July (TBC)
Closed Wednesday 6 July
Closes Friday 22 July (after school)
Term Dates 2016-2017
Autumn Term 2016
Opens Thursday 1 September 2016 (phased)
Closed Monday 12 September (TBC)
Closed Tuesday 13 September (TBC)
Closes Friday 28 October (after school)
Opens Monday 7 November
Closes Thursday 22 December (after school)
East Lancashire Scholars
January saw the launch of the East Lancashire
Scholarship Programme at Blackburn Central
High School. The launch involved five schools
from the area enrolled in the programme and gave
parents more information about the programme.
The programme is targeting students who
have the ability to get to university but may not
necessarily have the funds or aspiration to do so.
The programme will run for four years and works
with the students on confidence, self-esteem,
writing applications, etc, and also gives them
experiences of university life.
Spring Term 2017
Opens Monday 9 January 2017
Closes Friday 10 February (after school)
Opens Monday 20 February
Closes Friday 31 March (after school)
Summer Term 2017
Opens Tuesday 18 April 2017
Closed Monday 1 May (May Day)
Closes Friday 26 May (after school)
Opens Monday 5 June
Closed Monday 26 June (TBC)
Closed Tuesday 27 June (TBC)
Closes Friday 21 July (after school)
BCHS with Crosshill have a group of five able
students working with Lancaster University and
Villiers Park, and are the only 11-16 school currently
involved in the programme.
We were fortunate to have the BBC cover the
launch for their Sunday Politics North West show. A
short clip from the show is available on our website.
As part of the programme Salma, Orianna, Kiran,
Zain, and Aamirah attended a residential visit to
Lancaster University, and will be taking part in more
events organised by the scholarship programme.
Inspiring Doctors
In February BCHS held an inspiring doctors event,
which was an excellent opportunity for our Year 7
students to see how science and education can lead
to a fulfilling career in medicine.
The students really enjoyed the event and got to
take part in several activities such as an emergency
CPR course, measuring blood pressure, and stitching
patient’s wounds.
15

Healthy Eating Week
During the week commencing 13th June BCHS
with Crosshill supported Healthy Eating Week
with students taking part in challenges in and
outside of school hours. The aim of the Week was
to promote healthy eating and drinking, being
active, food provenance and cooking.
The Queen’s 90th Birthday
Students and staff at Blackburn Central High
School with Crosshill hung out the bunting to
celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday for a week,
ending with a Friday afternoon tea and retro
school yard games such as elastics, skipping,
hopscotch, and hula hoops.
As part of Healthy Eating Week students had the
opportunity to take part in five daily challenges with
a focus on behaviour change, these challenges
were ‘have breakfast’, ‘have 5 a day’, ‘drink plenty’,
‘get active’, ‘try something new’.
Students and staff both had the chance to try a
range of new and different healthier foods and
drinks that were on offer in the school restaurant
during breakfast, break and dinner; including
breakfast smoothies, malt loaf, granola, natural
yogurt, curried rice, and Chinese noodle salad.
Our Food Technology
teacher Mr McCrone held a
Master Cook competition
with students pairing
with members of staff to
demonstrate a range of skills
in the preparation of a variety
of dishes, and also taught
about the sensory testing
of foods in lessons. Miss
Cliffe, Director of PE, kept
the students active with fun
exercises every morning.
We’d like to thank Morrisons supermarket 104 for
their amazing donation of fresh fruit and vegetables
for our sensory testing of food lessons.
Thanks to the hard work of the EAL and SEN
departments, along with Mr McCrone from
Food Technology, our students enjoyed a freshly
prepared afternoon tea of triangle sandwiches,
followed by jam and cream scones, whilst listening
to music popular from when Queen Elizabeth II was
their age.
The SEN area had been decorated for the occasion
with bunting and union jack flags, and tables laid
with red and blue napkins and white paper doilies.
The students had a great time, chatting excitedly,
and enjoying afternoon tea with their friends from
both Blackburn Central High School and Crosshill,
then wished her Majesty happy birthday from
everybody at BCHS with Crosshill.
16

Stationary Store
Forgot your pencil case? Mislaid your pen? Broken
your ruler? Smashed your pencil? BCHS have
opened a Stationary Store during break in the
finance office (opposite the Library, next to COM7).
Heart of the Community
BCHS with Crosshill have unveiled our updated
signage, we welcome everybody into our learning
environment, and our new signage enforces that.
17

Community Spring Fair
Thank you to everybody who attended our
Spring Fair on Saturday 19th March, you helped
to make last term’s community event a fantastic
success. Also thank you to all the staff, students
and members of the community who helped out
and made it a fun-filled and amazing day.
Team Challenge
To help keep students motived as they start
their GCSEs, a number were selected to take
part in a Team Challenge. Divided into teams
of five, each team was issued with a scorecard
used to record points they earned during each
week.
If they met the criteria on their scorecard, they
were awarded points for their team, plus given
regular feedback about their performance.
Congratulations to Junaid, Kiran, Courtney,
Kaleb, Kamran, Moheddine, Billy, Sanah, Zaynab,
Qasim, Ryan, Amal, Uzair, Mariyam, Callum,
Daniel, Heather, Safa, Asad, and Faizaan for
their hard work and motivation.
The fair included a combination of stalls inside the
school, selling clothing, plants, food, confectionary,
handmade cards, glitter tattoos, health and beauty
products, toys and games; along with a range of
outside pitches for a Car Boot sale. The music
and drama talents of our students were on show
throughout the day with performances from the
creative and performing arts department.
The purpose of the event was not only to have
fun, but also to raise funds for our school charity,
which assists students with a range of issues and
events, to support their educational journey whilst
here at BCHS. This includes enabling students to
participate in educational visits, that they would
normally not be able to attend, or provide them with
items of school uniform, equipment or additional
resources to support their learning.
The Spring Fair
was one of the
best events held at
BCHS with Crosshill,
raising an amazing
£1,123. If you’d like
to take part in the
next fair on 22nd
October 2016, we
would be delighted
to hear from you.
BCHS are looking to roll the Team Challenge
out to other year groups next term, as it looks
to be having a positive impact on student
achievement.
Random Acts of Kindness
On the run up to Easter four BCHS students,
Orianna, Courtney, Abbey and Kirsty spoke to
the different progress groups in school about
their idea to end last term with acts of kindness.
The girls sold Easter Eggs during the last week of
term which were delivered by them to a nominated
friend or member of staff as a thank you. These
“thanks yous” could be individual, shared or even
anonymous. The students donated the money
raised by their hard work towards the money raised
by the Spring Fair.
Adult Literacy Classes
Our adult literacy class run by Mrs Booth and
Mrs Patel have been extremely successful.
The class takes place from 5:00pm on Wednesday
evenings at Blackburn Central High School.
We are hoping to offer accreditation via Blackburn
College, and to support the parents who have
been attending we are also running a crèche.
18

Community Use at BCHS with Crosshill
Gym
Monday to Friday
Saturday
Time
6:00pm - 9:15pm
9:00am - 1:00pm
Sunday
10:00am - 2:00pm
Standard price: £3.70 Simply Fitness / Gold Members: Free
All gym users need an induction - contact 07730 283721 for information
Fitness Class Day Time
Yoga Tuesday 7:30pm - 8:30pm
Standard price: £5.65 Simply Fitness / Gold Members: Free beeZ member price: £5.10*
Activity Price List *beeZ Member Non Member
Badminton or Short Tennis (per hour, per court) £9.15 £10.00
Table Tennis (per hour, per table) £5.30 £5.90
Cricket (per two hours) £66.00 -
Indoor Football (per hour) - NEW REDUCED PRICE From £36.00 -
Astroturf (per hour) - SUMMER SPECIAL PRICE From £15.00 -
Free re:fresh activities (beeZ card holders 16 years plus)
Time
For a free activity
Activity
beeZ card must be presented
Monday 7:00pm - 8:00pm Netball Coaching
Tuesday 6:00pm - 7:00pm Badminton Coaching
Tuesday 7:00pm - 8:00pm Badminton/Table Tennis
Thursday 7:00pm - 8:00pm Football
Sunday 12 noon - 1:00pm Badminton/Table Tennis
Equipment hire charges may be incurred and child prices are applicable, all courts are subject to availability.
Refresh sessions are subject to change. *beeZ membership £10 annually.
To book a class, gym induction or activity please call 07730 283721
At the Heart of our Community
There are a wide range of activities available at
BCHS with Crosshill including: fitness classes,
gym, sport facilities, astroturf, conference
facilities, private room hire, and more!
For more information about Community Use at
Blackburn Central High School please contact:
Duncan Carmichael (Centre Manager BSF
Community Use) on 01254 680012 / 07738
737525 or duncan.carmichael@blackburn.gov.uk
Opening Times:
Monday to Friday
Saturday
Sunday
6.00pm – 9.30pm
9.00am – 1.00pm
10.00am – 2.00pm
Information can also be found at:
www.blackburn.gov.uk/blackburncentral-cu
or visit us on Facebook at ‘Community Use at
Blackburn Central High School’
19

Blackburn Central High School with Crosshill
Haslingden Road
Blackburn BB2 3HJ
Details
Phone: 01254 505 700
Email: info@bchs.co.uk
Web: www.bchs.co.uk
Twitter: @BCHS_uk
Facebook: BCHS with Crosshill
..........................................................................................................................................................................
Headteacher: Diane Atkinson (BCHS & Crosshill)
Chair of Governors: Corwynne Whitehead (BCHS)
Contacts
Deputy Head: Neil Blower (Crosshill)
Chair of Governors: Philomena Keigher (Crosshill)
..........................................................................................................................................................................
Visits to the school can be arranged by contacting Deputy
Headteachers: Shanaz Hussain or Simon Braithwaite
Visit Us
Phone: 01254 505 700
..........................................................................................................................................................................