Dear all,

It's been a busy first week back. 

The holidays were a busy time for Year 11 and Year 13, and I'm very grateful to all the staff who gave up their time to run interventions, and to all the students who came in and were an absolute delight to teach. It's so exciting to see their confidence continuing to grow, especially with Year 11 going into their second wave of mocks next week. 

With the start of a new term, we also wanted to reset our expectations this week, to make sure that the high standards we've set on behaviour and uniform haven't slipped since September. It was great to see that students had been taking responsibility over the half term to make sure that they were fully equipped and correctly addressed, allowing us to focus on our main priority of giving your children the best education possible. 

It has been a busy news week in Gloucestershire, and I wanted to pick up on two stories:

First, there is understandable concern about Coronavirus. I want to assure you that we are following all relevant government guidance, which you can also find here.here.

Second, depending on where you live, you may have experienced some snow this week. Holmleigh Park is in a reasonably built up area, where the roads are regularly gritted, so please always assume school is open unless you hear otherwise. In the unlikely event of closing, we will place a message on our website and contact all parents by text.

Meanwhile, we've had an exciting week on school. Most of Year 7 travelled down to London, to visit the Troy Exhibition. It was wonderful to hear about the trip when they returned - and in particular, the pride they showed in knowing much more about ancient civilisations than most of the other visitors to the museum! I was also delighted to see that we didn't let a trip get in the way of our reading programme, and that all of the students present took their books with them! 

It's been a busy week on the sports pitches too, with the biggest accolade going to the Year 9 boys rugby team, who showed exceptional strength of character to beat Cirencester Kingshill in difficult circumstances, booking their place in the EDF county final at Kingsholm. We wish them the best of luck. 

Finally, can I remind parents that our expectations don't stop at the school gate. While almost all students are impeccably behaved on the way to and from school, a small number let us down this week. Please be aware that we can - and will - sanction students who don't meet our standards and bring the school into disrepute. 

With best wishes,

Mr Farmbrough

Headteacher