Return to school, Sister Act, testing & a creative hero

A strange return

It has been a very unusual return to school this term… Whilst we were only expecting to have vulnerable children and the children of critical workers this week, Boris’ announcement on Monday evening changed the plans for the following weeks. All staff have been working very hard to ensure we are prepared for next week’s learning that will take place either in school or at home.

Creative Hero Award

Our Director of Creative Arts, Miss Pappin, has been awarded a Creative Arts Hero award for her work in keeping the creative arts happening during lockdown. It is incredible what our students are able to do each week and we could be more proud of them and Miss Pappin!

Testing on site

All staff and students had a rapid Covid test this week. After taking a quick swab results are processed within 30 minutes. I do believe that the rapid testing will have a significant impact in terms of being able to ensure our safety within the school community, reassuring ourselves that we do not have the virus as well as being able to identify anybody who has the virus but is asymptomatic.

This was my negative test result!

Hark! was a hit!

There were over 15,000 views and so many lovely comments. This wonderful video seemed to be exactly what we all needed over the Christmas break. Congratulations to everyone who took part and to Charlotte Robinson, our Director of the Performing Arts Academy.

Sister Act!

Given the popularity of the Hark! video, I thought I should share another one this week – this recording was put together over Christmas and I thought you appreciate a bit of joy at the start of this term. This is a Year 11 performance from our Christmas assembly featuring Lottie Prowse, Mya Edralin, Millie Hope, Olisi O’Malley, Paige Godwin and Izziy Pollard. Miss Pappin described this performance as the best dance performance she has seen at TA.

Year 8 parents’ evening

We returned to our new online parents’ evening system again this week to enable staff to report back to parents on how students have progressed this year. It is an important time for the Year 8s as they will be soon making their GCSE choices.

Students of the Week

Year 7 – Brooke Tully and Kade Kelly

Year 8 – Jasmine Evans

Year 10 – Tyler Silvester

Year 11 – Troy Seddon

thisislanguage.com Leaderboard

This is the online platform that all KS4 students log onto in French to complete their weekly online homework. Year 11 students are currently in the lead but Year 10 and Year 9 are quickly catching up!