Dear all,

As another term draws to a close, I'm left feeling incredibly proud of all of our students. This term has been a real challenge, but your children have continued to be brilliant, calmly getting on with learning. This week saw our termly celebration assemblies, and it was a real pleasure to give out so many colours - more on that below!

First though, I wanted to share two important updates:

Returning to School in January

As you are aware, we have been asked to arrange for students to complete a lateral flow test before returning into lessons. Please note that these will now be the Orient-Gene kits, which don't require tonsil swabs - only nasal. This means that the return to school will be very slightly staggered to allow us to conduct these.

• Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 will have their tests on Tuesday 4th January, returning as planned on Wednesday 5th January

• Years 7, 8,  and 9 will have their tests on Wednesday 5th January, returning a day later than originally planned on Thursday 6th January.

If you have already given consent for testing in September, you do not need to fill in the form again. If your child has joined more recently, you can find the form here. 

Students only need to come in for their test, at the time shown below, and should then return home. They do not need to wear uniform.

If your child is unable to attend, I'd be very grateful if you can instead have them take a lateral flow test at home. 

• Year 7 - Wednesday 5th January: 08:45-09:30 (Surnames A-L) or 09:30-10:15 (Surnames M-Z)

• Year 8 - Wednesday 5th January: 10:45-11:30 (Surnames A-L) or 11:30-12:10 (Surnames M-Z)

• Year 9 - Wednesday 5th January: 12:45-13:30 (Surnames A-L) or 13:30-14:45 (Surnames M-Z)

• Year 10 - Tuesday 4th January: 11:00-11:30 (Surnames A-L) or 11:30-12:00 (Surnames M-Z)

• Year 11 - Tuesday 4th January: 12:00-12:30 (Surnames A-L) or 12:30-13:00 (Surnames M-Z)

• Year 12 - Tuesday 4th January: 13:45-14:30

• Year 13 - Tuesday 4th January: 14:30-15:00 

For further information on the testing process, click here. 

Important Changes to our Behaviour Policy

I also wanted to let you know that we have made some changes to our Behaviour Policy, particularly regarding exclusions. These changes will take effect when we return in January.

Mr King has written to all parents, and his letter can be found here. 

To summarise, we are introducing some initial stages so that we can offer a better alternative to exclusions, where students will be supervised to complete work outside of our mainstream lessons, rather than being sent home. The full details are in Mr King's letter, but I want to assure parents that this won't affect our extremely high standards - our expectations for students' conduct are completely unchanged, and we will still reserve the right to exclude students where their behaviour warrants it - including permanently, if necessary. 

Homework over Christmas

After a very long term, we want students to have a good rest.

Students in Years 7-10 are encouraged to keep chipping away at Hegarty, Bedrock, and Tassomai over the holidays - even doing a little has a significant impact on making sure students don't forget things and slip back, so we'll be giving house points to students who complete it, but we won't be issuing detentions. (Please note however that we didn't run Maths detentions today for any incomplete homework from this week, so these will carry over to next term.) 

Students in Years 11 should complete Hegarty and KayScience revision tasks as directed by their teachers, along with any additional revision tasks set based on their QLA feedback.

Years 12 and 13 should complete tasks as directed by their teachers.  

Christmas Celebrations

This week has been very Christmassy. Particular highlights have included the fantastic Christmas Concert which took place on Wednesday - it was wonderful to listen to our students perform, and I'm very grateful to Mr Goodway for organising it. Our Christmas Jumper Day and the Christmas Fair which raised hundreds of pounds for charity, we have donated crates of food to local foodbanks thanks to your generosity, and students have written hundreds of cards to residents of local care homes. Again, I'm hugely grateful to the festive force of nature that is Mrs Kingston for organising all of our charity events.

This week has also seen our first round of celebration assemblies. I enjoyed them all immensely though my highlight was Year 8 who received their Rank Order Assessment Grades - it was great to see students so excited about how they'd done, and particular congratulations go to those who made the top 50 ranks and had their name published. 

My favourite part of any celebration assembly is giving out School Colours so I want to finish by congratulating the students below for receiving their Colours.

Finally, may I take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Best wishes,

Mr Farmbrough
Headteacher

Junior Colours 

Sport

• Sienna W - Year 7
• Eloise N - Year 7
• Rommar W - Year 7
• Liam Ginn - Year 7
• Molly R - Year 8
• Oliver S - Year 8
• Gerrard S - Year 8
• Cory A - Year 8

Values

• Remae P - Year 7
• Faheem T - Year 7
• Kaci-Jane B - Year 7
• Erin-May J - Year 7
• Kwati K - Year 7
• Shannon P - Year 8
• Rahnuma N - Year 8

Half Colours

Culture

• Oliver C -Year 9
• Claudia C - Year 10
• Gracia R - Year 10
• Ewa W - Year 10

Sport

• Evan F - Year 9
• Jacob D - Year 9
• Emma B - Year 9
• Esme S - Year 9
• Evie D - Year 9
• Ryan F - Year 9
• Dino D - Year 10
• Angel-Jesus O - Year 10

Values

• Ryan F -  Year 9
• Lola W - Year 9
• Milly P - Year 9
• Keira L - Year 9
• Holly H - Year 9
• Paula O - Year 10
• Marco C - Year 10
• Jay L - Year 10

Full Colours

Academic

• Fabio V - Year 11
• Dimitrije M - Year 11
• Amy C - Year 11
• Kiera B - Year 13
• Leo K - Year 13

Culture

• Kris C - Year 11
• Freyja W - Year 11
• Louisa C - Year 11
• Kyasia D - Year 11 
• Rosa K - Year 11
• Sumeya I - Year 13

Sport

• Amy C - Year 11
• Jordan Y - Year 11

Values

• Cheyanne J - Year 11
• Rosie L - Year 11
• Shanjith S - Year 11
• Ellie J - Year 11
• Caitlin S - Year 12
• Jacob S - Year 12
• Michal H - Year 12
• Mikolaj H - Year 12