Dear all,

At Holmleigh Park, one of our key priorities is ensuring that our students achieve the best possible exam outcomes at Year 11 and 13. Today we have had an INSET day, with all of our staff in school and preparing for the forthcoming exam season which is just around the corner. We have been working on a range of different activities:

• Looking at Year 11 and Year 13 mock papers and deciding upon the important content to reteach in the next few weeks.
• Moderating the marking of coursework ahead of submissions to the relevant exam boards.
• Starting to think through and plan our exam warm up and revision booster sessions.

Over the Easter holidays we will have a range of Year 11 and 13 booster and catch up sessions. Mr Hogarth and Mrs Marsden-Green will be in contact about these. It is vital now that all of Year 11 and 13 students are working in structured revision programs at home, as meaningful independent work is going to be absolutely essential now. In addition to our Period 6 offer, we also have Champions Hours in the Library from 4pm to 5pm every day, which is an ideal space to complete work before going home.

Over the past week I have been able to spend some time in our morning Tutor Time Reading Programme. Every day at HP starts with reading. Every tutor group spends the first 25 minutes of the day reading together - the tutor reads a book and the class tracks it. This helps everyone develop as an excellent reader and learn new vocabulary. In our Year 7 tutor groups, the reading is actually done by our Year 12 mentors. In addition to this, they support the Year 7 tutor groups at Line Up and perform some of our break and lunch duties. All of this means that they have a visible presence around our Year 7 students, being both positive role models but also sources of help and support. I am very proud of what they have done this year and a thank you to all of our staff who guide our Year 12 mentors to have such a great impact.

This week we have had the team from GROWS working with all of our Year 10 students. GROWS is a partnership of the six universities and colleges in Gloucestershire. They deliver events that help young people aged 11-18 make informed decisions about their future. This week our Year 10 students reflected on their recent Rank Order Assessments and made some action plans about their next steps. On Monday, our Year 7 students had a visit from the author Catherine Bruton. Catherine read and spoke to them, before all of Year 7 engaged in a creative writing piece.

I wish you all a lovely weekend,

Mr Hudson
Headteacher