Dear all,

We have had an excellent week back. After lots of adapting in the first two weeks back, the school has felt calm, settled, and above all, happy. Staff and students are now familiar with the new routines, and it has (almost!) felt like things were back to normal. It has been wonderful to walk from lesson to lesson and see students fully engaged in their lessons, and enjoying their education so much.

Of course, we remain vigilant against coronavirus. So far, we have not had any students or staff test positive for COVID-19. A big part of keeping everyone safe is self-isolating if you have any symptoms. I have included below some guidance on when to send your child in to school. I do understand that booking a test is difficult right now, and I completely understand your frustration at having to keep your child at home when they almost certainly just have a normal cough or cold (which are very common at this time of year). Hopefully, Track and Trace will improve in due course - but in the meantime, I want to thank you for your support and patience in keeping the school safe.

I have also been asked by Stagecoach to remind students that they must wear masks on public transport. We have been checking that students have their masks this week and I've been delighted to see that every student is taking responsibility and making sure they have a mask. I know that it's tempting to remove them in this hot weather, but if your child is travelling on public transport, please do remind them about wearing their mask for the full journey.

But enough about Covid! I wanted to share three exciting updates this week:

First of all, our extra-curricular programme kicked off this week. Despite bubbles meaning clubs have to be limited to one year group, over 200 students completed at least one after school club this week, which is wonderful news. Please do encourage your child to consider getting involved; this term's clubs can be found here.

Second, on Wednesday we conducted our first ever Virtual Open Evening. I can't be completely sure, but I think this might have been the first ever virtual Open Evening in Gloucester; we were certainly the first school this year! It was wonderful to see several hundred visitors to our website. You can catch up on all the videos here.

And finally, the House Competition is now up and running. First of all, I'm delighted to congratulate our new House Captains, Deputy House Captains, and our Ambassador of Fun. Working with our Heads of House and our Director of Fun, they make up our Student Leadership Team. I'm very excited to see what they have planned!

We also have the first set of results. Meteor have taken an early lead, but there's lots left to play for!

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Farmbrough

Headteacher