It has been a really successful first week back at school! I would like to thank staff, students and families for their support in making this possible.

I hope everyone has a good weekend and that young people continue to observe the guidance that is in place in terms of social distancing arrangements and Covid-19 protocols. This is really important in terms of restricting the spread of the virus both in the community and in school. Thank you.

Testing at home
A reminder that students should have brought their test kits home yesterday..  There are three tests in each box meaning all children have enough to start testing on Monday morning at home and carry them through until after the Easter break – Students are not expected to test over the holidays. All students must test on a Monday and Thursday morning, should the result be positive they must not attend school but let us know as soon as possible so we can provide further guidance on next steps. Taking the test on a Monday morning will limit the impact of a positive case on the school community as it will have been over 48 hours since they were last in school.

Head of Year update – Mrs Avey and Year 11
It is with immense pride that we  are sharing with you and celebrating the actions last week  of one of our year 11’s. Sam Grainger, when out on a run, came across a woman in a great deal of distress. He coolly and calmly took charge of the situation, demonstrated enormous compassion, called  the  police, talked with the woman and successfully removed her to a place of safety. Sam was mature and brave beyond his years. Well done to Sam.

It is with pleasure that there has again been a plethora of young people highlighted for a shout out from their members of staff:

George Burt – Going above and beyond by completing English revision and contributing well to online lessons, Olivia Wilkinson – Some great contributions to live lessons, getting really involved using the chat and being responsive to feedback; Kenzie Booth outstanding effort –  Mr Hunt; excellent presentations on global warming and climate change today from 11S1 – and in particular Arthur Sharpe, Amelie Hind-Davis and Billy Hearld, Aimee Reed and Phaedra Wright, Adam Peters and Peter Carr and finally Maggie Wakeling, Katie Suchomska and Jess Machen. Well done to all of you and to the rest of the class for providing such a supportive audience  – Mr Williams

Fantastic effort in your end of unit assessment: Alessandra Hough; Aleyna Ceylan; Joe Dennis; Louisa Spence – Miss Hollinger; Emma Leopold in
Geography for producing exemplary work and clearly developing all her key arguments-  Miss Montagu; Abbey Driffield ; Klaudia Romanska; Robyn Darwin; Amber Atkinson; Jess Machen; Aaron Leaning – All working brilliantly in Textiles-  Mrs Harvey; The following students in 11e/Re1 working putting in 100% effort at the moment and producing some great work, Well done guys: Elisa Andrew; Isla Barrett-McHugh; Peter Carr; Tala Halawani; Daisy Hardy; Kirsty Harrison; Jessica Machen ;Adam Peters; Aimee Reed; Katie Suchomska; Holly Tasker; Charles Ting; Maggie Wakeling; Sophie Warburton; Adam Wong:  Lily Doyle has worked really well this week she is always engaging in the life lessons.

Finn Blogg has shown improvement by doing well on his maths assessment. – Miss Bhogal: Olivia Marshall – consistently working hard in RE and giving excellent reasons.

Josh Maynard – superb reasoning and justification of viewpoints in RE – very thoughtful and mature ideas-Miss Harper: Alessandra Hough, Louisa Spence, Dimitri Georgiou and Ashleigh Roberts all working really well in English – Miss Balmer:Lento Yamagata, Onett Perera, Reilly Adams, Emma Beale, Josh Ridell , Katie Richardson all working hard and displaying a very positive attitude to learning in RE – Mr Nihill: My maths group continue to impress with their hard work and dedication. Keep it up! Mrs Price;  Aimee Reed, Charlotte Walker, Abi Emerson, Josh Roe, Jack Stephenson, Ivy Tegetmeier and Isla Barrett-McHugh have produced extensive notes on the NT production of Jane Eyre- Miss Darlington; Oliver Wootten – pleasure to teach in English; always ready with an answer and a smile; Ben Hields – sterling work in English. I’m very grateful for his input in lessons; John Monk – produced some amazing work over lockdown in English – Miss Darlington; Evie James, Harvey Watson, Jake Noel; Fin Blogg    all working hard in English and producing good work-   Mrs Short;  Tia Hardy for doing extra practice essays in her own time to secure great progress in RE!  -Mr Hepplestone; Katy Hillyard,  Georgia Handley, Ellen Morrel, Jess and Rebecca Lee, Ashleigh Robert’s, Alice Widd and Leoni Hinchcliffe all continue to work hard and keep meeting coursework deadlines in food – Mr Martin;  Matthew Barber for working incredibly hard to improve his listening results.  – Miss Armes; For Luke Johnson – hard work in lesson and in his own time, which is definitely recognised!  Miss Milner; Emma Beale is doing great it online lessons in Computer Science – Mr Appleyard; Olivia Day, Sophie Watkins, Emy-May O’Donovan, Hannah Leach, Hannah Kirkman, Josh Ffrench-Adam, Bader Almohimeed, Wiktoria Kwiecinska and Olivia Tunnicliffe for engaging well in RE discussions and answering questions;  Shout out to 11b2 English students with Ms Evans who have done some great work on narrative writing this week, in particular Leah Wright, Wiktoria Kwiecinska, Ellen Morrell, Rowan Fearnley, Jess Firth, Tom Fuller, Luke Johnson, Hannah Kirkman, Hannah Leach, Josh Roe and Ben Soulsby;  Big well done to George Burt, Hannah L, Hannah K, Jess F, Luke J, Ellen M for completing lots of the half term revision quizzes as well – real commitment to success; Sophia Mackender for an exceptional piece of work – Mrs Price; Kirsty Harrison produced some immaculate Vectors work in Maths Mr Dodson; The continued resilience shown by 11C1 is excellent in these trying times. Well done to you all! Mr. Webb;  I would like to say a big thank you to my 11s3 Science group for showing resilience and continuing hard work. If I tried to pick out particular names, I would end up with the whole group! So, thank you and keep going! – Miss Gray; Philo Derbyshire and John Monk in 11a1 have both stepped up in Triple Science with a positive, “can-do” attitude and with a pleasing consistency in quality of work –  Dr Osman; Thank you to all in 11b1 working hard, you deserve the great successes you are getting! – Miss Gray and Natasha Pugh for being kind and thoughtful and generally wonderful – Mrs Price.

 As previously referenced in the Head’s bulletin, a letter will be sent home to parents on Monday that will contain some more detail about the May assessments and also a list of topics that students will need to revise for each subject.  Some key dates to highlight in advance of this:

  • These assessments will take place week beginning Monday 10th May.
  • These will be one paper per subject (two in combined science) and last for an hour in most subjects
  • Science papers for combined and triple will last for 45 minutes
  • In this week you will have assessments in:
    • English Literature
    • English Language
    • Maths
    • Science
    • RE
    • MFL (German, French, Spanish)
    • History
    • Geography
  • On Monday 17th May, you will have some more assessments in subjects that need them. 
  • These will take place in
    • PE
    • Music
    • Business Studies
    • Health & Social Care
    • Computer Science
  • You will receive a full timetable for these assessments after Easter
  • After the Easter holidays, all of your lessons in subjects with May assessments will be focused on revision and preparing you for the assessments – please do not worry about these – they will not be the only thing that determines your grade!

Weekly reading recommendations from Mrs Short
Y7 – Small Steps by Louis Sachar
Armpit and X-Ray are living in Austin, Texas. It is three years since they left the confines of Camp Green Lake Detention Centre and Armpit is taking small steps to turn his life around. He is working for a landscape gardener because he is good at digging holes, he is going to school and he is enjoying his first proper romance, learning what it takes to stay on course. He’s learned that doing the right thing is never the wrong choice, but is he going to be able to stay out of trouble.
You can read an excerpt, book summary, and find out about characters old and new by clicking on the link below.
https://www.bookbrowse.com/excerpts/index.cfm/book_number/1742/page_number/1/small-steps#excerpt

Y8 – PAX by Sara Pennypacker
From the moment Peter found Pax, an orphaned fox cub, boy and fox have been inseparable. But after Peter’s father enlists in the army and forces his son to return his pet fox to the wild, Peter and Pax both embark on perilous journeys to find each other again. As war draws near, Peter races to find Pax, but can the love the boy and the fox have for each other survive in such dangerous times?
There are copies available from the library and a set of book group questions. You can listen to a fifteen-minute extract by using the link below.
https://soundcloud.com/harperaudiopresents/an-excerpt-of-pax-by-sara-pennypacker

Y9 – The Skylarks War by Hilary McKay
The Skylarks’ War by Hilary McKay. Historical Fiction. Colour Green. Level 5.1. Quiz 235046.
Clarry and her older brother Peter live for their summers in Cornwall, staying with their grandparents and cousin Rupert. When Rupert goes off to fight at the front, Clarry feels their skylark summers are finally slipping away from them. Can their family survive this fearful war? The Skylarks’ War is a beautiful story following the loves and losses of a family growing up against the harsh backdrop of World War One.
You can read the first four chapters by opening the link below, and clicking on ‘open preview’
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39903894-the-skylarks-war

KS4 – The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
This story is about what is was like to be a woman during World War II when women’s stories were all too often forgotten or overlooked. Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac are two sisters, separated by years  and experience, by ideals and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path towards survival, love and freedom in war-torn France. You can read an extract here:
https://www.bookbrowse.com/excerpts/index.cfm/book_number/3140/the-nightingale

KS5
This week saw the shock exit of Piers Morgan from the morning news show Good Morning Britain. Here Jane Martinson explores the future of impartial broadcasting in the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/11/piers-morgan-uk-impartial-broadcasting-rupert-murdoch

Wellbeing – Feel-Good Friday

 Collective Worship
As we continue through the Christian season of Lent we continue with our Pilgrim Pathways theme in Form Tutor Collective Worship. We have thought about the metaphors of a Lamp, a Map and a First Aid Kit. Many people who go on a walking pilgrimage take a walking stick to help them stay stable. A walking stick can also be a symbol of all the wise people who have gone before us, who inspire us and help us continue on our journey. Our daily quotes are about Supporting others.

Friday – “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” – Ronald Reagan: 40th president of the United States