For the first time this term, the winter bugs have arrived this week and our attendance dropped significantly yesterday. I absolutely understand that genuine illness will impact students, and definitely do not want a young person with fever or at risk of vomiting to attend school. However, if a student can be in school, they always should. To make sure that all of our children get the social and learning benefits of being in school, I launched our Ten-Day Challenge to all students this afternoon.

The Ten Day Attendance Challenge 

Last year our attendance held up really well in the last fortnight of term. We had two prize draws that encouraged 100% attendance across the two weeks, and have made a slight change this year. We will have the following prize draws in the last two weeks of term:

• Challenge 1: All students that are present all five days next week will be in a draw for their lower school year group. So there will be a draw in each year group, from Year 7 to Year 11 next Friday.
• Challenge 2: All students that are present for all five days in the last week of term will be in a new draw for this year group. Again, five draws – one for each year group.
• Challenge 3: All students that have attended at least nine of the last ten days of school will go in the draw, for a larger prize. This will be the super jackpot (the largest prize) so there will be one winner across all of Years 7 to 11. 

The prizes will be Amazon vouchers, emailed to the winning students’ school email inboxes. We saw last year how this really maintained attendance to the end of term, and I hope this motivates pupils to commit until the very end of term.

Students of the Week

Congratulations to each of our stars of the week listed below for their hard work, community endeavours and support of others. Well done all!

Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	6th Form
Belva	Matthew	Mia	Bryce	Ana	Skye

Year 7 Silk Roads museum visit

On Tuesday, 120 Year 7 students visited the Silk Roads exhibition at the British Museum. Students had the opportunity to learn more about the lives and journeys along the famed networks running from East to West.  

Inside the exhibition, students were able to apply the skills they had learnt inside the classroom to explore the artefacts and come to their own conclusions as to what they could tell a historian about the Silk Roads. Students had the opportunity to see some sources that they had seen printed in their class booklets in real life which they really enjoyed.

Bebras challenge

Last month, some of our students from Years 7 to 13 participated in the Bebras Challenge, a national competition organised by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in partnership with the University of Oxford. Each participant had 45 minutes to complete a series of interactive tasks designed to support logical thinking and problem-solving skills appropriate for their age group. 

I am now pleased to be able to share that four of our students in the Inter category achieved Gold, placing them in the top 10% nationally and earning them the opportunity to compete in the next stage.  Well done to Megan (8RKH), Aradhya (8RKH), Matthew (9JAN) and E Shun (9AFS) and thank you to Mrs Shukla for organising this.

Performing Arts Showcase – Tuesday 10th December, 17:00-19:00

On Tuesday night we are proud to be holding our first showcase of the school year. There will be a combination of drama, music and dance pieces. We are also delighted that the hall will be decorated with items made by the Key Stage 3 Art Club. As if this was not enough excitement, the evening will be opened…. by the staff choir.

We have some tickets remaining, at the bargain price of only £2. These can be purchased using our parent app, MCAS, that I know lots of you will already use regularly. I hope to see you there for a pre-Christmas celebration.

Wishing you all a very happy weekend.

Mr N House, Headteacher