Dear all,

I'm writing this at the close of a very busy but successful half term. I have to start by congratulating Year 7 though - they have made an absolutely superb start to their time at HP and have settled in brilliantly!

This week has seen a number of particularly exciting highlights:

First of all, we have launched our Scholars programme. This is a new programme aimed at those students in lower years who are aiming for the very top grades. They'll be following a bespoke programme in tutor time aimed at extending their learning beyond what's covered on the curriculum, and I'm incredibly excited by the breadth and intellectual rigour of some of the topics they will be covering, and we'll be sharing more information in due course with the students selected.

We have also appointed our new Year 12 Prefect team. These students will be working side by side with staff to support younger students and to act as role models for them. They will be joining them in tutor time and line up, as well as helping with break and lunch duties. Huge congratulations therefore go to the following students:

• Aissata Diallo

• Arturs Galickis

• Charlie Searle

• Dimitrije Martic

• Emily Joyner

• Fabio Valente Gomes

• Jay Jonas

• Jensen Ferris

• Kyra Payne

• Lucy Miller

• Maheen Rasul

• Shanjith Srishankar

• Sophie Stafford

Finally, exam results were published for all schools today, allowing us to compare our performance against other schools in Gloucester and beyond. I'm delighted to say that both our Year 11s and Year 13s have rocketed up the league tables, overtaking many of our local secondary schools. Congratulations to all of the students involved for their achievements - but our focus has of course already turned to our current Year 11s and 13s; both year groups have made fantastic starts, and our Year 11s enjoyed a delivery of Papa Johns' pizzas today as a well done for their fantastic attendance to Period 6!

As we come to half term, please can I remind parents of Year 7-10 students that as always, we strongly encourage students to keep completing their Tassomai, Bedrock, and Sparx over the holidays. Even just doing a little bit makes a huge difference in making sure students brains keep ticking over, and interrupting the forgetting curve. Any homework which was set for this week past (including Low Stakes Quizzes for today, Friday) remains compulsory as normal.  Any homework set for Years 11-13 over the break must be completed as normal.

Finally, please can I also remind you that Monday 31st October is an INSET day. Students should therefore return to school on Tuesday 1st November.

With best wishes for the half term,

Mr Farmbrough

Headteacher