Headteacher's Weekly Update 10 - Friday 14th November 2025

Dear Parents and Carers

I hope this finds you and your families well; a Friday update for you as always.

Tutor–Parent Day yesterday was once again a highlight for us.  It is always a pleasure to welcome families into school for meetings with form tutors, to discuss how students are getting on.  I was particularly proud to see so many of our students walking their families through the school, pointing out classroom spaces, displays and the work they are doing.  These moments deepen the relationships between home and school and I thank you all for your engagement.

Our attendance for last week was 94% for the whole school.  Here is a breakdown by year group: 

• Year 7: 94.14%

• Year 8: 93.71%

• Year 9: 96.57%

• Year 10: 94.33%

• Year 11: 94.33%

  
  

This week we also received data from the Department for Education comparing our attendance with similar schools.  In much the same way that our FFT award last week highlighted that we are in the top 25% of similar schools nationally, for attendance, this comparative data shows that for the autumn term so far we rank 8th highest out of 21 similar schools.  A positive place, but we want more.  Please continue to support us by reinforcing the highest expectations regarding attendance, every day in school counts.

Turning to Year 11, the mock examinations began this week.  Conduct so far has been excellent, thank you to Year 11 students for their focus.  A few more mocks will follow next week; please keep up the hard work, it will absolutely be worth it.

You may be aware of the latest curriculum review led by Professor Becky Francis,  you can find the full report summary here.  One key area of focus is the need for schools to help students develop the ability to recognise and question the reliability of things they see and hear, especially on social media.  This is particularly pertinent for us, as we have had recent incidents involving doctored posts on TikTok, which students have believed to be true, and which have led to friendship issues and unkindness.  Please talk to your child about always questioning what they see online and encourage robust monitoring of their social-media use.  The legal age for many social-media platforms in England is 13 years old (and often higher), so students in lower year groups should not be on social media anyway of course, a thorny topic we continue to grapple with.

Our SENDCo, Mr Nelson, shared his SEND report at this week’s full governors’ meeting, outlining the provision in place for our students with SEND.  If you would like to learn more, you can access his report here.

Sports news, on Tuesday, the Year 10 girls’ basketball team played their first fixture of the season against Holy Family.  Kelmscott made an excellent start and narrowly missed out on the win.  A huge well done to Lina Boultouak (10O), who was voted Player of the Match for her hard work and determination throughout.  The team now turn their focus to next Wednesday’s fixture against Lammas.  Next week also promises to be a busy one for our athletes, with netball, football, basketball and handball fixtures to look forward to.

An upcoming careers opportunity I would like to highlight:

• An online careers event geared towards economics, finance and business, offered by the UK Government.  For more information please see here.

  
  

Finally, well done to all our year-group reward-points winners for the short week Wednesday 3rd – Friday 7th November 2025.  Your positive attitudes and consistent effort are recognised and greatly appreciated.  A special congratulations to Ghania Leghari (10M), who achieved an impressive 17 points in just three days, a sterling effort and a fantastic example to others.

➪ Year 7, Abigail Michale in 7O and Aayan Mirza in 7L both with 14 points

➪ Year 8, Makeem Miller-Robinson in 8M with 17 points

➪ Year 9, Clementine Avery Archer and Aamnah Ashraf in 9E with 12 points each

➪ Year 10, Ghania Leghari in 10M with 17 points

➪ Year 11, and a hat trick for Amelie Molloy in 11L, Amanullah Hussain in 11K and Mohamed 

    Salim in 11E with 8 points each

Wishing you all a restful weekend.

Mr Sam Jones 

Headteacher