Dear all,

I write this at the end of what has been an extremely tough term - certainly the most tiring I can remember in my career! 

Before I go on, I just wanted to mention a couple of important COVID provisions to bear in mind over the holidays:

• First, the Department for Education have asked that you continue to test your children for COVID over the Easter holidays, and continue to report the results to both us and Track and Trace. 

• Second, please note that if your child develops COVID symptoms and tests positive between now and the 7th April, you need to email [email protected] to report this, so that we can carry out our own contact tracing and let other students who may have been in close contact know. 

Moving on, this term has definitely been a challenge. Whether it's been the impact of a second lockdown (without the good weather of the first!), or just the difficulty of keeping the school running at full speed with limited staff and while coordinating all our mass testing, it has certainly felt very busy. It's all been worth it though - as your children have been absolutely magnificent. I spent the last lesson today taking two potential new teachers round on a tour and I challenged them to spot a single child not concentrating on their learning. Despite it being the end of term, they couldn't!

There continues to be lots of talk in the media of a lost generation and needing to catch up, so let me be absolutely clear: your children are without question the most resilient and determined group of young people I've had the pleasure of teaching. They've worked phenomenally hard to keep up to speed, and the calm manner in which they have taken each hurdle is an inspiration to us all. 

Today also marks the one year anniversary of Pam Howes' death. In school today we held a minute's silence to remember Ms Howes, and all those who've lost their lives since this pandemic began. I'm also very pleased to tell you that we'll be clearing out some of the overgrown land at the back of the school, and turning it into a garden to remember everyone who has lost their lives during this pandemic - and we'd love for students (and parents!) to get involved in helping make this happen. I'll be writing to you with more details after Easter.

Finally, in celebration assemblies this week we've been celebrating the students who have received their school colours. So congratulations to the following:

Junior Colours (Year 7 & 8)

Academic

Bobby W

Gabby B 

Darius I

Phoebe O

Zahira M

Harvey C

Culture

Kismat L

Lyla W

Anamika J

Sports

Ryan F

Values

Rhys A

Alfie K

Liam P

Elizabeth I

Zoe Z

Ruby K

Gracie K

Matthew M

Precious O

Amy P

Lyla W

Olivia P

Half Colours (Year 9 and 10)

Academic

Ewa W

Paula O

Carter N

Joe T

Holly R

Harry J

Romain D

Ruby W

Shanjith S

Culture

Emilie M

Coral B

Amy C

Sport

Amy C

Values

Olivia B

Dino D

Romain D

Rosa D

Full Colours (Year 11 and Sixth Form)

Academic

Elizabeth O

Kiera B

Keira B

Promis E

Sumeya I

Rose D

Jane G

Alex V

Milan P

Jess C

Culture

Caitlin C

Zak P

Conor F

Values

Caitlin S

Jess L

Jasmine S

Tom T

Will D

 

Congratulations to all of the students, but particularly to Amy C in Year 10 for being the first student in the school's history to achieve her half colours in all four fields!

I hope you and your family have a very restful Easter. Please remember that there is no INSET day on Monday 19th (this was swapped with the additional INSET day in December), so we're straight back in at 08:30 on Monday 19th April.

Best wishes,

Mr Farmbrough

Headteacher