Good afternoon,
I think we can all hear the collective sigh of relief, as the Year 11s and Year 13s have now finished their exams - a huge congratulations to all! I'd like to thank the exams team who have worked incredibly hard to deliver what is an increasingly complex exam series! So, Founders' Day is just around the corner and I look forward to welcoming all Year 11s and Year 13s back into school next Friday to celebrate this important day in our school year.
Away from exams, it has been another full week: Year 7 Geographers hosted Year 5s from St Andrew’s primary; Year 8s had their HPV vaccinations; the Year 8 Maths team (Anna, Elsie, Niki and Jessica) had great success in their competition, coming 3rd out of 91 teams; Eco Club had a ‘bio blitz’ afternoon; Mrs Edwards led the Year 10 DofE candidates on their expedition; and today we had the Pride Picnic at lunch.
Wednesday was 'thank a teacher day', and we marked this by celebrating staff at the school with the presentation of our inaugural teaching staff and non-teaching staff awards as voted for by the students. This was an initiative developed and led by our outgoing Head Girl, Amy Pryle, and her Deputies Caitlin Coles and Avani Raju. With hundreds of votes being cast, many staff received 'honourable mentions' for their work, and the overall winners were… Teacher of the Year - Mrs Foster and Non-teaching Staff of the Year - Mrs Reynolds. Well done and thank you!
I had the pleasure of joining Eco Club as they presented their findings to each other following their environmental survey of flora and fauna. It was truly inspiring to see and hear their enthusiasm and their knowledge was simply incredible. As students were leaving school I saw a few of the participants at the gate and asked them to let me know what they thought of the day and this is what they said:
"We really enjoyed taking part in the Eco Club bio blitz, and it was an incredible opportunity to discover the wildlife right on our doorstep. It was an insight into how communities can contribute to conservation on a wider scale, and we're looking forward to making a tradition of it!" -Helena and Anjli (Year 9)
“Being out in the sunshine, and investigating and appreciating the biodiversity around the school was a wonderful experience. We were able to identify and record the wildlife using iNaturalist and it was really interesting hearing peers and teachers sharing their knowledge and experiences of local nature. Our findings included muntjac deer droppings, a confirmed Noble False Widow spider and a disease affecting many Horse Chestnut trees. I think we all left with a greater insight into the wildlife around us, and inspired to keep taking notice of it. It felt great knowing our recordings were contributing to citizen science and could be used in studies and species identification for others.” -Sophie (Year 10).
It was fantastic to see students across the year groups coming together to share their love of nature and our surroundings, and I must thank Mr Beardmore-Crowther, Mr Buckridge and Mr Lynn for all their work for Eco Club - and I must say the wildflower patch is looking amazing!!
Earlier this week I gave every member of Project Polyglot a Headteacher's Award for their work in delivering MFL lessons to local primary schools. The amount of effort these students put into this project is incredible, and they are all worthy recipients of the awards!
With Founders' Day, enterprise activities and sports week all taking place next week, there is more to look forward to.
Have a good weekend,
James Crowther, Headteacher
