Headteacher Update

September 2022

There have been some great moments this week in school and none more so than hearing from a member of the public praising the actions of two of our Year 8 students, Daniel and Jacob, who on the way home from school stopped and supported a family who had been involved in a hit and run incident. The following is an extract from the email sent into the school,

“These boys demonstrated a strong sense of sound moral judgement, they were the only people to offer any form of help and assistance, not caring that it was raining and instead focussing on checking we were not badly injured. I really don’t think they are aware of how much their actions positively impacted us during a terrifying ordeal. Their community spirit and willingness to help total strangers really restored my faith in the younger generation in my local community.”

Well done Daniel and Jacob!

Molly, in Year 10, has also achieved recognition this week be becoming the Europe Region winner of the BBC Microbit competition, which is a huge achievement recognising the qualities and innovative nature of her design ideas.

Next Friday will see our inaugural Pledge day where every student will be engaging in activities to broaden their knowledge and understanding of everything from higher education to local heritage. It is a mammoth undertaking with 4 year groups out of school on the same day and Year 7 engaged in activities in school, so a huge thank you to Mrs Winder who has had the headache of putting it all together. We are also in the final stages of planning for the Year 7 residential visit to Ford Castle, which will take place next summer; we want as many students as possible to attend so someone will be in touch if you have not expressed an interest for your child to attend, in particular if this might be for financial reasons. More details on the trip will be published to parents next week.

Our Sporting Academy programme is open for business again from next week. Please see the information here for further details. News about the Performing Arts Academy will follow in the next couple of weeks.

Thank you again for your ongoing support with uniform, undoubtedly, it is the best it has been for some time and students are responding appropriately if they are not in correct uniform. There has been a small issue with a small number of students refusing to take their nose stud out for PE lessons; for health and safety reasons, this is not optional and must be done even if they have only recently had the piercing.

Finally, in assembly this week, we have been reflecting on the life of the Queen in readiness for the State Funeral on Monday when the school will be closed. I ended the assembly with a line from the Bishop of Berwick, who addressed the 50,000 runners of the Great North Run last Sunday before the race, which I think sums up the Queen’s long reign,

“Rarely has one life touched so many of us and so deeply, defining who we are and inspiring who we might be.”

Best wishes

Jonathan