This week

Our most prestigious awards evening took place on Thursday evening. Our annual Prize Giving celebrates those with the highest attainment in individual subjects as well as those who have made the most progress and effort in each subject. It also gives us the opportunity to recognise other achievements such service to the School, sport and those achieving the highest of GCSE and A level results. It was great to see so many of last year’s Year 13 come back before most of them head off to university, including our three who are heading to Oxbridge. But it was a special evening for all year groups with an outstanding musical interlude by four talented soloists. We were also joined by Elliot Jay Stocks, Head Boy from 1999/2000 who not only awarded the prizes but also gave an inspiring speech about choosing to do the things you love doing in order to feel successful and happy in life. Our thanks go all who helped make this a memorable evening, especially our KS4 caterers who made the post ceremony refreshments. Thank you to all parents, governors and special guests who attended and congratulations to all our prize winners.

Assemblies this week have focussed on a theme of belonging. It was an opportunity to encourage students to reflect on the various ways they can feel like they belong, whether that be to their family, a friendship group, a club or sports team or indeed their school where, through our uniform, ethos and values there is every opportunity to truly feel like we belong.

The Senior Leadership Team have again visited hundreds of lessons this week and been very impressed with the way our students are settling into the new academic year. In the new planner (and on the website) there is an explanation of our Vision for Learning. It would be great if parents could have a conversation about this with the children to get them to think carefully about how they are working towards each of the five pillars of learning – Progress, Ownership, Challenge, Relationships and Engagement.

Bromcom Portals

Our launch of the student, parent and teacher Bromcom portals continues. The vast majority of students have managed to log in successfully. There are some who can do so at school in their IT lessons but find they are unable to at home. Please check whether parental control software and restrictions need to be altered to allow any home devices to access the student portal (https://www.bromcomvle.com).

Parents should have received a log-in for the parent site (https://www.mychildatschool.com) and there is also an app that can be downloaded from Google Play and the App Store.

Please note that the School’s ID for the parent or student platform is 11528 and NOT 115228 as printed on the sheet that came home this week. Again, many apologies for the confusion this may have caused.

Scholastic Book Fair

This is coming to the Library from Thursday, 3rd Oct to Thursday, 10th October. Books will be available at full and discounted prices as well as novelty stationery, pointers and posters. The more items we sell, the more money the School will receive in commission to buy new books for the Library. Students will have the opportunity to visit the fair before school, at break or lunch and after school and if time permits, some Forms may be able to visit during Registration.

Extra-curricular timetable

Our Autumn Term extra-curricular timetable is now available on the website here. We urge all students to get involved, try something new and if there is something we do not offer to let us know.

Open Evening

Our Open Evening for parents of prospective Year 7 pupils that takes place on Wednesday, 2^nd October 2019.

To facilitate this, the School will close after lunch on that day. There will be normal lessons from periods 1 to 3 then the Sixth Form and Year 11 will be registered and dismissed at 12.15pm. Pupils in Years 7 to 10 will be registered after lunch and will be dismissed at 1.00pm. This will allow staff to prepare rooms for the evening.

On Thursday, 3^rd October pupils should arrive by 9.40am for registration at 9.45am followed by normal lessons.

Please note that this evening is only for parents of pupils who may be joining the School in September 2020.

Year 7 Parents ‘Settling in’ Evening

Parents of Year 7 are reminded to kindly reply to the email that was sent earlier this week about the evening event at the School on Thursday, 26th September. This will be a chance to get to know other parents, to meet your child’s Form Tutor and to receive other information that will help you support your child through Year 7.

Dates for the Diary

Thursday, 26th September – Year 7 ‘settling in’ Evening

Wednesday, 2nd October – Open Evening

Wednesday, 9th October – KS4 Information Evening – for parents of Years 10 and 11