22 June 2018

What an incredibly exciting, action-packed week we have just enjoyed in school!

It’s a week that has encompassed a sunny trip to Swanage beach for our Year 9 Geographers and a fantastic day at the Santa Pod Raceway for Year 5 pupils who really made the most of the chance to learn about engineering and racing through the Dare to be Different programme. This programme has the following mission statement: 'We aim to inspire the next generation to smash preconceptions and prejudices, raising the curtain on a new era in which daring to do something different is praised and encouraged.’ I’m sure this inspirational message resonates with us all as parents and teachers.

Back at school, we enjoyed two evenings of fabulous drama provided by Year 7 and Year 8. The pupils worked incredibly hard to conceive, develop, direct and perform a series of short stories linked by the common theme of understanding one another. My thanks to everyone in the audience who cheered them on over both performances.

Yesterday brought a superb display of Junior sporting endeavour as our annual Sports Day took place for pupils from Nursery up to Year 6. It was wonderful to share in a fantastic day of active competition and to see pupils competing, challenging themselves and most importantly having fun surrounded by our warm, supportive and encouraging school community. We were treated to an array of spectacular sporting achievements, with many school records broken.

Today has seen us welcome many new pupils into school for Move-Up Day. This is a great chance to share in the excitement of starting a new school or simply meeting your new teacher for September! My thanks to the PTA for coming into school to support this important event. We continue to be delighted by the strong demand for places across the school and the growing list of registrations for 2020.

Finally, our thoughts turn to our Year 11s who have now completed their GCSEs and are heading off to tackle their work experience. We wish them luck and look forward to seeing them back in school for Prize Giving at the end of term.

With best wishes for the weekend,

Dr James Raymond