Issue 1077: 14th March 2025

HEADLINES

Shrek! The Musical

Thank you to everyone who came along to watch our school show, Shrek the Musical, this week. I am sure you will agree that the performances were superb and a true reflection of our talented pupils and the hours of dedicated practice they put in.

There were some exceptional individual performances, but most striking was the heart-warming sense of teamwork, with pupils across all year groups showing genuine support for and encouragement of one another. The show really was a highlight for us as a school and I am sure, as parents and carers, watching your children as part of the cast and crew made you all as proud as we were.

In terms of what’s coming next, I know that both the staff and the pupils are keen to find another Show and to build upon the success of Shrek, so please do watch this space…..! In the meantime, please enjoy looking at the selection of photographs below, which certainly provide a taste of what a feel-good event it really was.

Careers

Over the last few weeks, our Year 9 pupils have enjoyed a number of careers related events to coincide with their options choices as well as National Careers Week.

These included our annual in-house information and guidance sessions as well as two full days of workshops provided by local volunteers from four different industry areas. The feedback from these has been very positive and we are indeed fortunate to have been offered such an opportunity.

We are planning to arrange similar events for other year groups in the future, with the next focus on helping Year 10 pupils with writing CVs.

As a reminder, for further information and guidance, please do visit our Careers page on the website, which you can access by clicking here.

Driving and Parking Around the School Site

Please can I ask parents/carers to drive and park responsibly when dropping off/collecting your children from school. We place great value on our relationship with our neighbours and ask that you always park with care and consideration in the surrounding roads.

In particular, please do be mindful of not parking so as cause an obstruction and/or to block the driveways of local residents. Thank you, in advance, for your ongoing support.

Furthermore, if you are coming into school for a pre-arranged meeting, please avoid parking in the staff car park, accessed via Sir Walter Raleigh Drive, as the gates are locked at 8.30am for safeguarding reasons and our site staff are not always readily available to unlock the gates to let you out! Ideally, we would ask that you park in the surrounding areas (but, as mentioned above, without causing an obstruction to our neighbours) but if this is not possible, there is usually limited parking available via our Cheapside West entrance.

And finally, on the subject of parking, as I have requested previously, please do not park in the bus bay area as this causes significant problems and potential safety risks to our pupils when they are arriving and leaving the school.

And Finally

Have a lovely weekend.

World Book Day Winners!

On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day in the Library and around school with an array of activities. You may have noticed lots of posters displayed in classrooms, detailing the current reads of staff. As well as this, all staff were encouraged to carry around a book of their choice on World Book Day, which stimulated many conversations about books and reading, with lots of recommendations too!

There was a special “Emoji Book Title” Quiz which pupils completed during form time and in the Library, which was decorated with book recommendation bunting, alongside lots of Wordsearches, Book Bingo and other book-related activities.

We also had the Literary Pairs Competition, where 40 members of staff were wearing badges depicting a book character. The task was to match the pairs and identify the book/poem/play and author.

Pupils rallied to the challenge, tracking down staff and matching badges with lots of discussions about the books.

Our World Book Day winner was Scarlett (8EBr) who managed to identify most of the pairs, with bonus points for book titles and authors! Scarlett scored an incredible 66 out of a possible 80 points winning an Amazon voucher, Easter egg & book as her prize.

Our runners up, with just one point behind, were Alex & Chloe (both 8EBr) and were awarded an Easter egg & book.

Special mention to our Year 7 pupils Kaiden, Omotayo & Ethan who found the most matches in their year group!

Well done to ALL the pupils who took part and gave it a go – it was certainly rewarding to see the excitement around books in school.

Staff also had the challenge of identifying the “other half” to their literary pair.

Congratulations to the characters from To Kill a MockingBird, Atticus Finch (Mr Smith) & Scout Finch (Mrs B Waghorn), who found each other by 08.10 that morning!