Dear all,

This week marked our two hundredth parental tour of the academic year. It has been wonderful to see the interest in Holmleigh Park from the wider community, and to show off how hard your children are working. We have already had close to twice as many Year 7 applications as we had at this stage last year, so please can I remind any families with children currently in Year 6 that the deadline for applications is 31st October. While priority is given to families who already have children at the school, if your application is late your child is unlikely to be given a place. 

This month is Black History Month, and we have been celebrating this in assemblies this week. Ms Martin, Chair of our Equality and Diversity group, has led the assemblies which have focused on Paul Stephenson, who was Bristol's first ever black social worker. In his lifetime, he organised a city-wide boycott of Bristol's buses, which refused to employ black drivers or conductors. We also looked at the artwork of Chris Ofili CBE, who at just thirty became the first ever black artist to win the prestigious turner prize. 

Next week, students will be reading a selection of short stories from black authors - a fantastic opportunity for students to hear from a diverse range of perspectives. Of course, it's important that we do this regularly, and not just in Black History Month, and we have recently reviewed our Tutor Time Reading canon to make sure the selection of authors really do represent the diversity of our society; you can see our current reading list here. 

Otherwise, it's been as busy as usual in school - we've had lots of fixtures going on both home and away and the launch of this year's Christmas Card competition to name a couple. My highlight though has been receiving Year 12's Prefect applications, and I look forward to sharing the names of those appointed with you next week. 

Finally, I'm pleased to say that the majority of the building work on the Sports Centre is now complete, and the centre will open to the local community under Halo Leisure's management on Monday 17th October. This means PE will almost be back to normal next week, with just a little interior work left for over half term. If you're interested in joining, please see my letter here with more information and details of a special offer for those signing up by the end of this weekend. 

Best wishes,

Mr Farmbrough