Dear Families,

It has been another busy and productive week at school. Lessons have been excellent, with students showing a strong focus on their learning and working hard across the curriculum.

One of our big priorities this year is developing students’ vocabulary. A strong vocabulary helps students understand more, communicate more confidently and succeed across all subjects. Staff have been using Frayer Models to help students explore new words in greater depth by looking at definitions, characteristics, examples and non-examples. Ask your child if they have used a Frayer Model this week! You can see an example of this type of vocabulary activity here: Word Maps – Reading Rockets.

This month we have also added a new Careers’ Corner to the newsletter. This will give families an update on some of the fantastic careers activities, workshops and opportunities our students have been involved in this term. There has been a huge amount happening, and we are really pleased to be able to share more of this work with you.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on our new-look newsletter last week. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are very grateful for your comments and suggestions. We will continue to develop and improve the newsletter based on your feedback. If you did not get a chance to complete the survey last week, you can still do so here: Newsletter Feedback Survey.

Finally, we would like to recognise Reece Halliday in Year 11, who is taking on an incredible challenge in support of Teenage Cancer Trust. At the end of this month, Reece will be completing a 100-mile walk to raise money for the charity.

This is a brilliant example of our BRAVE school values in action. We are extremely proud of Reece and would love our school community to get behind him. If you would like to support Reece and find out more about his challenge, please visit his fundraising page: Support Reece’s 100-mile challenge.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. I hope you have a restful weekend. 

Harvey Ovenden

Head of School