On Thursday 11 December, our choir had the pleasure of visiting St Augustine’s to perform three short pieces as part of their Christmas party. It was a wonderful opportunity to share festive music and bring some Christmas cheer to a very special community.

As a school, we are proud to support the excellent work St Augustine’s do with refugees and people seeking asylum in Calderdale. This visit helped strengthen our growing links with this important local charity and reflects our commitment to kindness, compassion and community.

Well done to our choir for representing Crossley Heath so beautifully and for using their talents to make a positive difference.

Over the last 4 weeks, 19 Year 12 students have smashed a business consultancy programme led by OC&C Strategy Consultants in London.

Thanks to our alumnus and former Head Boy, Fabrizio De Vito, who now works at OC&C, our students got the chance to take part in this fantastic schools outreach initiative.

Working in small teams, they built key skills in creative thinking, commercial awareness, critical analysis and presenting - developing bespoke business pitches through brainstorming, financial planning, competitor benchmarking and creating professional slide decks. They then pitched their ideas to a panel of OC&C employees, including Fabrizio himself.

A brilliant experience - and with work experience placements now on offer, several students will be taking their new skills even further!

We’re so pleased to reveal the brand new designs for our school values: Kindness, Courage and Excellence.

The Courage and Excellence designs are fairly self-explanatory, but the Kindness icon is especially meaningful. The yarn is a nod to Thomas Porter, a Manchester yarn merchant. In 1887, Thomas made a hugely generous endowment to our school, on the condition that the institution be renamed The Crossley and Porter Orphan Home and School.

Thanks to the kindness of Thomas Porter (and, of course, the Crossley brothers), our school exists today, so it felt only right that kindness sits at the very heart of our values.

These designs were inspired by a student competition and beautifully brought to life by Mrs Tomlinson. We’re thrilled with how they’ve turned out.

You’ll be seeing them rolled out across school over the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for them popping up!

A huge thank you to everyone in our Crossley Heath community who supported this year’s Winter Coat Campaign in aid of the Halifax Community Fridge. The generosity shown by our students, families and staff has been truly heart-warming.

This campaign was led by Badar in Year 13, who volunteers with the Halifax Community Fridge and wanted to help those in our local community who may be facing incredibly difficult choices this winter, such as whether to heat their homes or put food on the table.

Thanks to your donations of coats, jackets and hoodies, many people in need will now be able to stay warm during the colder months. Every single item donated will make a real difference.

A huge congratulations to our wonderful students, Alice, Teighan, Alannah, Mareena and Hasini, for their fantastic performance in the Northern Arts Winter Showcase, hosted here at The Crossley Heath School.

Their talent, confidence and teamwork shone on stage, and we couldn’t be prouder of how brilliantly they represented our school.

A massive thank you as well to the incredible team at Northern Arts Factory, who run our Performing Arts club and continue to inspire, support and bring out the very best in our young performers.