Dear all,

This week has certainly been an unusual one, and I write this having waved off all of our students for the summer.

First of all, please can I thank you for your support on Monday. Closing school is never ideal, but I was heartened to see students complete so much work on Google Classroom, making sure it wasn’t a lost day of learning. We were pleased to be back on Tuesday – not least because it meant our Christmas concert could go ahead. It was wonderful to hear from so many outstanding young musicians, and was a huge highlight of the term for me.

The fun has continued in school, and Wednesday saw students enjoying the Christmas dinner cooked by our wonderful catering team. Thursday saw our end of term celebrations, and I hugely enjoyed giving out certificates for the best progress in each subject – and of course, awarding another round of Academy Colours. As always, the full list of Colours winners can be found at the end of my letter.

We have also delivered your donations to Gloucester Foodbank, totalling 83.15kg of food, and the foodbank have asked me to pass on their thanks for your generosity. Wednesday was also our Christmas Jumper day, and I'm delighted that we raised over one hundred pounds for charity, with even Scramble getting involved!

As a school, we’ve continued to move forwards this term, and I’m very grateful to all of the staff for their hard work – and particularly Mr Hudson, who has made a very significant impact as our new Head of School.

Please can I also take some time to highlight a few considerations for next term:

First of all, can I remind you of our expectations for homework over the holidays: Any homework set for Years 11-13 over the break must be completed as normal. For Years 7-10, though it’s not compulsory, 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!

Second, I want to update you on some staffing changes within the pastoral team. Mr Thompson (Head of Year 7) has now left the school, and Ms Furleger (Head of Year 8) is going on maternity leave. I’m pleased to announce that we have appointed Ms J Wright as Head of Year 7, and Ms Abedrabo as Head of Year 8. There have also been some resultant changes to our Deputy Heads of Year, and you can find a fully up to date list here.

Finally, please note that we have made a small alteration to our Behaviour Policy – specifically, where a student is referred to OSP (On Site Provision) for not attending a detention, they will now be required to sit the full detention the next day (instead of being released at 15:15). This is to address the fact that a number of pupils feel they would rather be sent to OSP than sit their after-school detention, so that they can leave earlier. We obviously want students to prioritise attending lessons, and we hope this change will result in fewer students being referred to OSP.

Finally, I hope that you have a wonderful holiday, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mr Farmbrough

Headteacher