Friends & Former Pupils

Sheffield High Old Students and Staff Association (SHOSA)

Next SHOSA Reunion – Saturday 19 June 2010

Are you, or is a member of your family, a former pupil of Sheffield High School? If so, SHOSA would like to hear from you.

SHOSA’s main aims and objectives are to encourage continued interest in Sheffield High School, to reinforce friendships between former pupils and their peer groups, to maintain SHS archives and to foster links with current SHS pupils. Any fundraising for the School contributes to bursaries for those attending SHS. SHOSA also shows its support and encouragement for current SHS girls through its annual trophies for Music, Science, Rounders and a Junior School Prize. An International Sports Award is also given in memory of Miss Lucas.

SHOSA produces an annual newsletter with news of the whereabouts of its members and organises an annual gathering for former SHS pupils at School. To download a copy of the latest Newsletter, please click here (89 KB .pdf file)

If you are interested in joining SHOSA (£5 per year), or if you would like to trace your former classmates, please contact our School Business Manager, Mrs White (kwhite@she.gdst.net) or on (0114) 266 0324 and she will put you in touch with SHOSA. If you would like to download a Membership Application Form, please click here (41.5 KB Word file). Completed forms should be sent to: Mrs N Smith, SHOSA, 5 Stocks Green Court, Sheffield S17 4AY.

SHOSA CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2009

SHOSA Reunion 2008
As the SHOSA year begins with the Annual Reunion in June, I will begin my report by looking back to June 2008 and what was a very enjoyable SHOSA reunion, attended by former Headmistress Miss Skilbeck and several former members of staff including Daphne Luff and Sue Rankin. As well as tours of the school led by our current sixth formers and lunch in the dining room, we were entertained by one of our Y11 students, Catherine Collett, who has been working on the school archives and who had put together a very informative and amusing presentation on the History of Sheffield High School. Catherine has continued her research into the school’s history during the past year and is working towards producing a dissertation this year which we hope to have printed and make available to current and former pupils, staff and parents.

Prize Giving 2008
It is always a pleasure for us to have old girls attending school events and particularly our annual Prize Giving at the Octagon in September. At last year’s Prize Giving, one of our former pupils, Kirsten Heywood née Lister, (1972-1986), was our guest speaker and she entertained the audience by giving us all a lesson in Japanese, assisted by our youngest prize winner Emily Hogg who had achieved Japanese GCSE with a grade A*.

SHOSA Competition
SHOSA prizes, awarded annually, were presented to:

Natalia Mole – Young Scientist
Verity Hill – Music
Charlotte Edwards – Rounders
Hannah Grundy and Siobhan Prentice – Service to the Junior School

The SHOSA Art and Photography Competition winners are displayed in the hall for you with our prize winners this year being Victoria Wensley and Harriet Williams.

Continuing Success
I am very pleased to report that Sheffield High School continues to enjoy its position as the top performing school in South Yorkshire and beyond – not just in academic success but particularly for its achievements in Sport, Music and Drama. In Sport this year, our teams reached the national finals in badminton and skiing and our U15 trampolining team were crowned national schools’ champions. In netball, one of our Y11 pupils, Lauren Potter, captained the U17 England netball team to win the gold medal in the European championship and Natalie Chan-Lam represents England at badminton in the U14 age group.

In music and drama our school production was Pirates of Penzance which played to sell-out audiences and was described by many in the audience as as good as any professional production they had seen.

Our Achievements Recognised!
In July last year, we were very proud to become one of only 14 schools in the country to be awarded the status of a Go4it school, which recognises schools which encourage risk-taking, enterprise, creativity and a “can do” attitude in its pupils. At the end of this year we are hoping to be awarded the Full International School Award which is given to schools which promote an international dimension in the curriculum. If you would like to take home a copy of our International Newsletter, we have some available at the front of the hall. You will see that we now have strong links with China, and our pupils and parents have the opportunity now to learn Mandarin in school. This year alone our girls have travelled with school to China, Barbados, Costa Rica and Cuba, Florida, Paris, Majorca, Spain, Iceland and the Isle of Wight.

Annual Fund
The Annual Fund is now in its 3rd year and is proving invaluable in allowing us to purchase additional resources for the school and to help fund bursaries for girls who would otherwise be unable to benefit from the education we offer at Sheffield High School. Approximately 20% of our girls receive assistance through bursaries and scholarships but we have to turn down at least another 20% each year who we cannot help because of insufficient funds. I would like to thank all our old girls and their families who have donated to the fund, every gift no matter how small is greatly appreciated and enables us to make a real difference to what the school can offer its current pupils. At the request of some of our former pupils we are about to launch a legacy campaign which may be something you wish to consider in the future.

Thanks to our Committee Members
I would like to thank the SHOSA committee who continue to work tirelessly to keep SHOSA alive as an organisation and to meet the requests of old girls who want to be put in touch with former classmates. Maggie Chilton is doing an excellent job of putting together two newsletters a year and she relies on news from old girls to put in the newsletters so please keep sending her any snippets you have. Norma Smith does a sterling job as SHOSA Treasurer and Membership Secretary and we are very grateful to her husband, Trevor who has the difficult job of minuting our meetings. I am also very grateful to Kath White, our School Business Manager, who helps to organise the reunion each year and who also audits SHOSA’s accounts. We are always looking for new committee members and if anyone is interested in joining us or learning more about what is involved, please come and speak to either Norma, Maggie, Kath or myself.

Some Changes but Much still the Same
When you look round the School, I’m sure you will find lots of things which haven’t changed since you were at school, but hopefully you will also see lots of things which have improved over the years. We are always looking at ways to improve and extend our facilities and our next area for extension and refurbishment will be our Sixth Form Centre which is now housed in No. 1, Melbourne Avenue. As our sixth form numbers are likely to reach 200 next year, our existing facilities are too small, so we will be building a new sixth form study centre, classrooms and a kitchen/dining room over the rear courtyard of the existing building. We look forward to showing you these new facilities at the 2010 Reunion.

Enjoy Your Visit!
I hope you will enjoy being back at Sheffield High School today. I am always very happy to show former pupils and their families around school at any time if you know of anyone who would like to drop in and visit the School.

Valerie Dunsford, Chairman

The Minerva Network

Minerva is developing ‘CareerStart’ which offers training in generic, transferable skills through seminars in schools. Liz Rhodes, Director of the National Council for Work Experience says how important it is for girls to have valuable work experience. Minerva is also compiling a register of ex-Trust girls who are willing to provide advice on or actual work experience for Sixth Formers. Anyone who can help Sheffield High girls to gain work experience please contact: www.minerva.org.uk

We look forward to a future not only of consolidation but also of expansion. SHOSA survives and thrives with the enthusiasm offered by younger ‘old girls’ joining the Association to complement the wisdom and experience of our older members.

SHS Annual Fund & Corporate Sponsorship Programme

• Have you thought that you can continue to support the School by contributing to our Annual Fund or by being involved in our Corporate Sponsorship Programme? The Corporate Sponsorship Programme takes the form of sponsoring an event in School or sponsoring a piece of equipment or advertising in one of our publications. For more information, please click to download details (381.2 KB .pdf file). For more information on our Annual Fund, please click here