So uplifting to see so many students back to school

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A wider reopening

So much has been written in the press about the reopening of schools from Monday of this week. Of course, we have never closed! We did, however, open our doors to many more students this week. It has been so heartening to see so many students in school this week working hard with their GCSE and A-level teachers trying to catch up on the lost education and to get them ready for the final year of study from September.  This is on top of the students in our Year 7-9 All Day School. Our students never fail to impress me at any time during the year however this week they have really shown what they are capable of. From the second they walked into the building they have been focused on regaining lost ground and focusing on the examinations that they will sit in less than 12 months.  I can’t tell you how lovely it is to have our classrooms busy with learning again.

In a week there seems to have been a lot said and written about the approach of the teaching profession to reopening, I could not be more proud of the dedication of all of our staff in their determination to support all of our students to the best of our abilities.

Year 10 School

The Year 10 Full Time School (for children whose parents are critical workers and vulnerable children) has now been running since half term.  These students are in all day every day and are making great progress.

Students who are not attending the Year 10 Full Time School (for children whose parents are critical workers and vulnerable children) started to attend from Monday this week. These Year 10 lessons take place over the full Year 11 day and run from 8.30am to 4.00pm. Students are assigned to one of three groups and they are on a three-week rota of being in school two days a week for two weeks and then in one day for the final week.

Year 12 School

The Year 12s have also returned to school this week. We have chosen to provide the face-to-face support in those subjects where there is a critical volume of knowledge that must be taught; for students in these subjects, each day missed is inevitably going to have a negative impact on their final result.  It is running between 9.00am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

For the A level subjects where face-to-face support will not take place and the BTECs, we have continued to build upon the exemplary home learning support that has been in place for the past eight weeks. Subject leads are still setting work and monitoring progress to ensure that every student is still able to attain their best potential grade. We will be supporting students this way in the following subjects:

• Art
• Photography
• Business Studies
• Health and Social Care
• Sport
• IT
• Music Technology
• Music Performance

Students are still maintaining regular contact with their teachers.

Subjects, where face-to-face support is taking place, are as follows:

• Maths
• Further Maths
• English Literature
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Media Studies
• Product Design
• History (via Google Meet)
• Geography (via Google Meet)

All Day School

It has been another busy week in our All Day School.  Mr Penrice has been asking our students for their feedback on how they are finding their new school experience with a view to making improvements.  As part of this feedback one of our students described what they do each day:

When I was asked about coming back I thought it would be boring and we’d have long lessons and not be with any friends but now actually being back it’s a lot better than staying at home. At school during this time we still have a lot of freedom and we can still interact with friends as long we stay apart and we can still come in early for breakfast. As well as this we still have sports where we can exercise and socialise with others.

Students of the week

Congratulations to Year 7 Student of the Week Megan Sellick

Congratulations to Year 8 Student of the Week Hailie Windsor

Congratulations to Year 9 Student of the Week George Nelson

All day school raffle winner

Students have been awarded a raffle ticket rather than a house point in the All Day School. At the end of the week, all of the raffle tickets are put in the box and a winner is drawn out.  This week’s raffle winner is Tammy Westacott in Year 7 for excellent effort in PE. Congratulations, Tammy!

Enrichment tasks

This week there seems to be a theme of food and exercise.  To be perfectly honest, this has left me feeling very hungry!!  Thank you to everyone for sharing what you are up to at home.

All day school breakfast club

It is lovely so see so many students coming in early to take advantage of our free breakfast offer.

Mini Mr Foulds

Mr Foulds has been using one of his many skills over the past few weeks to make our school look even better and become a more inspiring place to be.  I do like this picture of Mr Foulds looking like he is standing on Mr Littler’s shoulder…

Immi’s New Designs

Immi Festorazzi in, Year 7, attends a small local riding school and when we went into lockdown, much like lots of businesses, it was affected. Immi decided she wanted to raise some money to help them or buy something for them once restrictions were lifted. Given the nation had come to a halt this obviously limited what she could do but she decided that she wanted to design some t-shirts to try and sell. She has put together a website and all the designs under the Fundraising tabs have been designed by Immi (with some help to turn them into a usable design).  All profit from the sale of these products will go to the riding school and even though some restrictions have now been lifted, this will still happen. The website also allows others to create designs.  It was also very important to Immi that we looked out for the environment which is shown on the site.

The website is
https://printedfun.teemill.com/

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