Withernsea High School

GCSE results will be available to collect from the Holderness Learning Centre (HLC) between 9.00am and 12.00 noon on Thursday, 20 August.

Students are expected to collect their own results. If they are unable to attend, they may nominate a relative or friend to collect their results on their behalf. Students must notify the school of their nominated person in advance, either by email using their verified school email account or by providing a signed letter. Anyone collecting results on behalf of a student will be required to show photographic ID.

A letter from Mrs Mackenzie containing full information about Results Day, including results collection, post-results services, examination certificates, OneDrive access and the support available, has now been published via the EduLink Noticeboard. A copy can also be downloaded from the 'Letters to Parents' page under the 'Parents' section of the school website.

We look forward to welcoming our Year 11 students on Thursday, 20th August.

During the final three days of the summer term, 50 Year 7 students travelled to PGL’s Dearne Valley activity centre for the school’s annual residential visit.

Now in its twelfth year, the residential included a range of outdoor and team-building activities, including kayaking, zip lining, climbing, archery and bushcraft, giving students opportunities to develop confidence, resilience, communication and teamwork outside the classroom.

The residential forms part of the school’s wider personal development programme, encouraging students to take on new challenges and build positive relationships with their peers.

Assistant Headteacher Matt Burnitt, who led the visit, said: “The Year 7 residential is always one of the highlights of the school year. It gives students the chance to step outside their comfort zones, challenge themselves and discover what they are capable of.

“Throughout the three days, students approached every activity with enthusiasm and determination. We saw countless examples of resilience, teamwork and encouragement, as well as new friendships developing through shared experiences.

“One of the most rewarding aspects is seeing the sense of community that grows over the course of the visit. Students support one another through every challenge, celebrate each other's achievements and return with greater confidence in themselves and those around them.

“I would also like to thank our students for the exemplary way they represented the school, our staff who gave up their time to make the trip possible, and everyone involved in organising another successful residential.”

The activity centre’s programmes are designed to be accessible to students of all abilities, enabling participants to develop practical skills and confidence through outdoor experiences.

A spokesperson for PGL said: “At PGL, we encourage children to escape from modern stresses and reconnect in the great outdoors. Having a break from digital distractions allows them to be present, live in the moment, make new friends and get the most from their outdoor adventure.”

Visit our brand-new online Art & Photography Gallery to explore a selection of our students' creative work.

The gallery will be updated throughout the coming academic year and beyond, showcasing artwork and photography from students across all year groups.

You can find it under the Students menu.

Direct link: https://www.withernseahigh.org.uk/students/art-gallery

Almost 100 students were recognised for excellent attendance at the end of the academic year as the school's Door to Draw reward scheme concluded with its annual prize draw.

Launched in October 2024, the initiative rewards students with a raffle ticket for every week they achieve 100% attendance. Each ticket provides an entry into the end-of-year draw, with students increasing their chances of winning by maintaining full attendance throughout the year.

The scheme forms part of the school's wider attendance strategy, alongside rewards for tutor groups and individual students, to encourage both short-term and long-term attendance goals.

Prizes included rugby balls, dart boards, toys and games, a family ticket to The Deep, cycle services, dining hall fast passes, Amazon vouchers, Game King vouchers, Amazon Alexa Echo Dots, Smyths Toys vouchers and a £100 One4all shopping voucher. Other prizes included a free fish and chip lunch with the headteacher, free school pudding passes for a term and vouchers for local eateries including Bengal Lancer, Dope Burger and Willows Holiday Park.

Businesses supporting the scheme through prize donations included Southgates Chartered Certified Accountants, Howdens Withernsea and Game King.

Lucy Hopper, Family Support Advisor, said: “We are incredibly grateful to our local businesses and community partners for their generous support of our Door to Draw attendance rewards programme. Their donations, alongside funding from the school's governing body, have enabled us to offer a fantastic range of prizes that recognise and celebrate students who demonstrate excellent commitment to attending school.

“Our attendance data shows a clear improvement since the scheme was introduced, with students responding positively to the incentives while also developing a greater understanding of the importance of attending school every day. These rewards are about far more than prizes - they help reinforce positive habits, encourage consistency and recognise the effort students make throughout the year.

“The continued support of local businesses makes a genuine difference. Every donated prize helps us motivate and reward more students, and we hope even more organisations will join us in supporting this important initiative in the future.”

Sixty Year 10 students visited Yorkshire Wildlife Park as part of an educational trip to support their studies in Art, Photography and Geography.

The visit gave Geography students the opportunity to learn about conservation, habitats and endangered species, while Art and Photography students took photographs and completed sketches to support their Non-Examined Assessment (NEA). The photographs and sketches collected during the visit will form the basis of students' Year 11 coursework, providing first-hand reference material for their final pieces.

Students explored the park in smaller groups, giving them the opportunity to prioritise the animals and exhibits they most wanted to see. Among the highlights were close encounters with giraffes and polar bears.

Amy Norris, Head of Design Technology, who organised the trip, said: “It was an absolutely boiling hot day, but we had lots of fun. We split into groups and let the students guide where they wanted to go because we knew we wouldn't have time to see everything. It worked really well. We were really lucky because when we were near the giraffes they came within a couple of metres of us while they were feeding, so we managed to get some really good selfies. We also saw the polar bears swimming in and out of the pools.”

Art and Photography students spent the day gathering reference photographs that will now be used as the basis for their Year 11 coursework. This year's extended project, which accounts for 60 per cent of the GCSE grade, focuses on natural forms, with students moving from floral studies to animals. During the project, students will create research pages before developing final pieces inspired by the images they captured at the park.

Amy added: “The photographs they've taken will be used for reference in their artwork. They'll create research pages based on what they saw at the wildlife park and then produce artworks inspired by those photographs. Some of them were already talking about ideas on the way home. Elizabeth got some amazing photographs of the leopard right up against the glass while it was yawning and she's already said she wants to make the leopard the main focus with floral backgrounds.”

Geography students also visited a range of habitats and biomes that feature in the GCSE curriculum, enabling them to see classroom learning in a real-world setting.

Sarah Harris, Head of Humanities, said: “We visited various biomes that we study as part of the national curriculum and the GCSE specification. We visited Amazonia and looked at rainforest species and the environments there. We looked at Arctic regions and we looked at hot deserts. It was really great for students to see the adaptations that we study in a real-life context.”