Dear all,

On Wednesday we celebrated International Women’s Day through our DEAR time. Students heard from a range of staff talking about the women that inspire them and then they had to write about one woman who inspires them. Thank you to Miss Martin for organising this event and for creating the exhibit of flower petals, containing our students’ tributes, that will be shortly displayed at Holmleigh Park.

On Thursday, the Year 10 Scholars students took part in a mock trial, following several weeks of preparation and research into the justice system. In the fictional case of 'R vs Emerson', students took on a range of roles including barristers for the Defence and Prosecution, Jury, Judge and other supporting roles. Each of them had to thoroughly read through all the witness statements, as well as familiarise themselves with the relevant sections of the law, with the defence and prosecution teams preparing questions and opening and closing statements to persuade the jury members. Thank you to Mrs Roberts and Mrs Barrett for their work supporting the Year 10 Scholars with this project. The group are now looking forward to our visit to Gloucester Crown Court at the end of this month to see real trials taking place.

Finally, please note that next week sees two days of planned industrial action which will take place on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March. We are prioritising the following groups:

• Students with public exams this summer (Year 11 and Year 13, who will sit their mocks as planned)
• Year 10 students, who currently completing work to prepare them for public exams
• Looked After Children
• Students with an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP)
• Children of critical workers

All other students (i.e. most of Years 7, 8, 9 and 12) should remain at home. Remote learning will be set via Google Classroom. 

Year 10, 11 and 13 students should attend school as normal, and we will contact all parents/carers whose children we believe fall into other eligible categories by the end of Monday 13th March. If you are a critical worker and would be prevented from working if your child was at home, I would be grateful if you could fill in this form by 16:00 on Monday 13th March. If you did this for the previous strike, there is no need to do so again. 

I wish you all a lovely weekend,

Mr Hudson
Head of School