I very much enjoyed this week's assembly, considering how social change, for good and for ill, can impact us. Mr Gardner discussed childhood experiences, from his own family experience and from students in today’s society. He concluded the assembly asking students to consider the question, 'Should the UK follow Australia’s example and ban social media for under 16s?'.

We have also started some great fundraising, with a bake sale and ‘Meme Day’ run by our Sixth Form students. This raised over £250 for Red Nose Day, and we will continue to do our part supporting good causes in the coming week as you will read on.

Easter Egg donation – Tuesday and Wednesday

We will be collecting Easter eggs on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th March to help support our local community. Last year we received over 400 chocolate eggs, and we would like to at least match that this year. The donations that we receive will be delivered to the following worthwhile charities: St Helier Hospital, The Royal Marsden Children’s Hospital, local care homes, a local women’s refuge and Sutton Night Watch.

Trainer Day – Thursday 27th 

On Thursday, lower school students will be allowed to wear trainers, rather than school shoes, for the donation of £1. This is to raise money for our students’ social action trip to Zambia this summer. The students have undertaken many fundraising activities already (bake sales, quizzes, car washes) and the group is getting closer to raising the full funds for their trip. So, by the end of next week, we will have donated funds to Red Nose Day and given Easter eggs to a range of local organisations, as well as helping fund our students’ social action trip to Zambia later this year.  That will conclude a full week of fundraising, and support of others.

Temporary school – arrangements for the end of spring term, start of summer term

I am so excited about the permanent rebuild of our school, but also very happy with the new temporary school that has sprung up on our site. I will write to families separately with details of the arrangements, but here is a quick summary.

The vast majority of our classrooms and offices will be packed up on the last day of term, and then during the nine days of the school holidays, all furniture (student desks and chairs, staff desks and chairs, packing crates of books and papers, and cages with all practical items from our workshops and science labs will be moved by a commercial removal company into the temporary school. This will take all of the Easter holidays, and we will not take possession of the temporary buildings until the start of the summer term. We will absolutely ensure that our GCSE and A Level students this summer will be as unaffected as possible by this, as we have explained to our students in Years 11 and 13. 

However, this is a brief overview of the situation and I will write separately in our Friday letters to families next week. This will then be hosted on our school website as a reference point over the coming weeks.

PE kit – a pilot

A reminder that as from Monday 24th March, students with a PE lesson on that school day will be permitted to wear their PE kit to school. There are many reasons for this (such as students not carrying two bags to school), and a number against (remaining in sports kit all day after vigorous activity early in the morning), but in the short term our hope is that it will make life easier for students and staff as we move into the temporary school.

I must emphasise that this is a pilot, with an important factor in its remaining long term being that students continue to wear correct and full school PE kit. We will review this over the next term, in the hope that the positive benefits outweigh any downside.

UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge – follow-up round success!

On 20th March, our talented mathematicians who excelled in the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge took part in the follow-up rounds, demonstrating their problem-solving skills at an even higher level. This prestigious competition provided a fantastic opportunity for our students to challenge themselves beyond the initial round, competing against some of the best young mathematicians in the country. Their resilience, hard work, and determination were truly commendable, and we are incredibly proud of their achievements.

Students of the week

Congratulations to these students for their combination of hard work, community spirit and great social contributions. Meeting them to hear more about their achievements, and present them with certificates, is one of the highlights of my week.

Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	6th Form
Zoya	Gracie	Rueben-Emmet	Issy	Sean	Saffi, Bilal, Rahma

 

 

 

Wishing you all the best for a restful weekend.

Mr N House, Headteacher