I hope this letter finds you and your families well; a Friday update for you as always. I hope you managed to have a good half term holiday. I had to double check my diary to confirm that half term was just last week, as it already feels like a long distant memory. This is largely as it has been a very busy week in school – no change there then.
Year 11 continue to attack their GCSE exams with real gusto. They conduct themselves exceptionally well and are a real credit to themselves, and the school. Just a week and a half of exams to go, and it will all be behind them. I know they will continue to work hard, right up until the final exam.
There have been a number of exciting co-curricular activities taking place this week too. Year 9 enjoyed trips to the Imperial War Museum on Monday - circumnavigating the tube strike - and to the Science Museum today. Year 10 took part in the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge, a series of workshops on public speaking followed by a competition to see whose presentation was the best. It was won by the impressive Madison Martin in 10L with a talk on the importance of education, both in terms of qualifications, as well as character development. Special mentions to Finn Scotchmer 10L and Vaneeza Fayyaz 10E in the runner up positions too.
I wrote before the holidays about our desire to phase out mask wearing in school from Monday next week, unless there is a genuine medical reason for a young person wearing one. Many thanks to those of you that have written in to your child’s form tutor already. Our school nurse is compiling a list for us that will be shared with staff. We hope this move will improve communication in the classroom and help support the progress and attainment of all students. We won’t hesitate to return to mask wearing, should the need arise.
An important message about our end of term arrangements. As part of our expansion programme and the increased number of students in the school in September, we need additional classrooms in certain areas for certain departments. This means we need to rearrange particular areas of the school, moving a number of departments around to take up new classrooms and offices. This will affect the Maths, Geography, History and RE departments, as well as the IC. In order to give those areas time to pack up their many resources and equipment needed, for those subjects, we plan to use the last day and half of the school term for the packing up to be completed.
This means that the last day for all students will be Tuesday 19th July at 3.10pm. Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st, in the morning, will be for staff only for the decant to take place.
Staying with end of term activities; regrettably we will not be able to go forward with the end of year trip to ZAPspace, for Years 9 and 10. This is due to, on a routine pre-visit check, finding the venue fell well below the stringent health and safety standards demanded by our risk assessment. We apologise for any disappointment and are looking into alternative opportunities for these year groups.
Sadly, we have also had to cancel the Science department’s STEM trip to the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham, this time due to the extensive rail strikes. As we are unable to make any alternative arrangements for this trip, this academic year, we have refunded families via their cashless accounts. Apologies again for the disappointment this will, no doubt, cause to the students involved in this trip.
On a more positive note; a reminder that our Celebration Evening is on Thursday 16th June next week. It has been somewhat of a tight turnaround organising this event as we haven’t done it for a few years. This is an invitation only event I’m afraid, award winners and families will receive their invitations on Monday next week, we very much hope you are able to attend. Awards are on offer for each subject area as well as a whole school sports award and the Headteacher award.
Finally, congratulations to Musa Fazal in 8C who topped the rewards points charts, in the week before the half term holiday, with twenty-one – keep up the good work.
Yours sincerely
Mr Sam Jones
Headteacher