Within the curriculum, teachers at Highsted recognise the need for young people to enjoy their lessons in order to develop a life-long love for learning. This page seeks to capture and share curriculum-based activities with a special twist and gives recognition to students who achieve excellence through their wider activities within and beyond the school.

Student Success at the John Downton Awards 2024

We are excited to announce that students from Highsted have their work exhibited at the John Downton Awards 2024 at County Hall, Maidstone to view from 19 November 2024 until January 2025. The Private View and Awards evening for teachers, students and their families was a fantastic event, showcasing shortlisted students from many schools in Kent.

We must congratulate nine students from Years 13, 12 and 8 this year for becoming shortlisted and Emma (Year 13,) whose work was awarded Gold in the Drawing category. We are immensely proud of the students who have shown a huge amount of dedication and a high level of skill to achieve the standard. We applaud Chik, Emma, Jessica and Madi in Year 13; Jasmin, Sian, Bhuvana in Year 12; together with Eva and Isobelle in Year 8. Well done!

The John Downton Award is for young artists and is an annual exhibition encouraging and celebrating the creativity of Kent’s young artists. It is open to students aged 11-18 from schools and colleges in Kent.

John Downton was an English artist, philosopher, musician and poet. Born in Erith, Kent in 1906, he later went to Erith Grammar School. The first award was in 2000 at the request of Miss Hilda Downton, sister of the celebrated artist.

Emma (Year 13) winning Gold in the 17-18 age group, with her drawing entitled ‘Madi.’ Congratulations Emma.

Mrs Waring, Mrs Wrigley and Mrs Rennie (Art & Design Department)

Royal Academy Success for Leah!

Highsted Art Department are very pleased to announce that Leah in Year 9, was selected for the Royal Academy Young Artists’ Summer Show 2024. The Royal Academy was founded through King George III in 1768. Its aim was ‘to establish a school or academy of design for the use of students in the arts’ with an annual exhibition. With over 21,000 students taking part in this national competition this year, we wish to congratulate Leah on this fantastic achievement. Her work will be exhibited online and at the Royal Academy, London in the near future. It is brilliant news and we wish her all the best.

Leah writes, “I chose to create this piece as it symbolizes the friendship within my hobby (football) and what is a big part of me. I created this piece on an A3 sized paper with acrylic paints and a few details with coloured pencils. This piece was entered into the Young Artists’ Summer Show in March and will be put up in the Royal Academy of Arts in June. I have a private viewing with my family to see it on either 13 or 14 July 2024. I am still very shocked about getting accepted and am overjoyed that my art will be put up in a gallery for people to visit. My family and I will be taking a trip up to London to visit it and I am extremely excited.”

Isabelle (Sixth Form Art Representative) writes, “As a Year 13 going into my last ever week at Highsted, I look back on my time in Art as the most interesting, formative and fun parts of my education. Beyond developing skills and curating my own ideas about the world, the people around me and my personal experiences, Art has helped me form bonds with some of my favourite people who I know I’ll cherish even as I go on to university.”

It is with this sentiment that I applaud Leah – it’s a genuinely lovely piece which captures that feeling of deep connection that’s curated in such a tight-knit community as Highsted. I wish her the best of luck both for the RA Exhibition and for the future, because it’s certainly bright.

Mrs Waring (Head of Art)

Year 7 English Reading Aloud Competition

On Tuesday 4 February, three Year 7 students took part in the final of the English Reading Aloud Competition. The Year 7 competition required students to learn and practise a poem of choice, to coincide with their study of war poetry. A great variety of poems were performed, with the final choices being The Broken Chain, Sonnet 18 and the sorting hat poem from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Congratulations to the two runners up: Maisie S and Amelia A and to our winner, Olivia H. All three students read confidently in front of a very large audience. Well done!

Red Ribbons & Tiny Penguins win festive cake competition

Year 9 students have been working to create Christmas cakes this term as part of their Food & Nutrition course. All students were challenged to design, decorate and make a Christmas cake. This involved creating a rich fruit cake, making marzipan and creating hand-made decorations to finish it off.

As part of this project students had to study preparation, storing and cooking techniques, and on Friday 13 December, the cakes were entered into the annual Festive Cake Competition. This year’s joint winners were: Holly T (K3) for her cake decorated with holly and a bright red ribbon; and Isobel B (R2) for her cute penguin cake. Joint second place was awarded to: Beau G (S2) and Hannah T (F5).

The students have shown tremendous enthusiasm and produced some creative, imaginative and skilful designs, well done to all those involved.

Students Read Aloud: Years 7 & 8 Reading Competition

Students in Years 7 and 8 have competed in a new House Reading Aloud competition. The competition was matched to the Highsted English syllabus, with Year 7 students choosing a poem to prepare and Year 8 students selecting an extract from a classic text. The Year 7 finalists included Maisie S: The Broken Chain, Amelia A: Sonnet 18, Kaya T: Homework, I Love You and Olivia H, who read the sorting hat poem from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The Year 8 finalists were: Madison S, Sean C and Alycea W, and they read extracts from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Lord of the Flies and A Christmas Carol. Congratulations to Alycea, winner of the Year 8 competition, and good luck to Year 7, who will be competing shortly.

The Great European Bake Off

Highsted students recently celebrated the European Day of Languages by taking part in a European cake baking competition. There were two categories: A Taste of Europe, where students were asked to bake a traditional recipe; and Look at Me, judged for decoration. In the Taste of Europe category, Lucy S won first prize with her German black forest gateau; Jess S came second with her German marzipan nuss torte and Anastasija M achieved third place with her Latvian cake. In Look at Me, Millie R and Kai B joined forces to win first place with their Belgian chocolate cake complete with a hot air balloon, Ella J and Olivia T teamed up to gain second place with their ‘World in Union’ cake; and trio Esther M, Maddie M and Imogen T were third with their French decorated cake including the national flag and traditional greeting ‘Bonjour.’

The cakes were showcased at Open Evening (and eaten!) by lucky visitors and parents. All the students involved did a fantastic job researching, creating and designing their culinary masterpieces and should be proud of their efforts. Well done to all!