We’re now fully into exam season and we’ve been impressed with the approach of our Year 10 and 11 students who have been fully prepared and focused. They are certainly being ambitious and showing resilience. Our thanks go to you too for your support during this time. 

In assemblies this week, Mrs. Godsell-Wright has been focusing on good habits and avoiding bad habits (with a little help from Ed Sheeran!). Having looked at why bad habits are bad, students were invited to explore good habits that help us to live healthy lives in all ways. There are 10 good habits; sleep pattern, exercise, healthy eating, personal hygiene, listening to your mind and body, learning to manage stress, finding your passion, managing screen time, avoiding substances misuse and building healthy relationships. 

The May Music concert on Wednesday was a triumph with a wide range of excellent, enthusiastic performances. The Keyboard Club got proceedings underway and we had precise piano solos from Austin in Year 10 and Esmae and Freddie in Year 8. Freddie gave us an extra challenge to identify the countries in his national anthems medley which seemed very fitting as we approach Eurovision weekend! We had moving vocal solos from Larissa in Year 11 and Olivia in Year 9 and the Pop Choir made us all feel like singing with their performances which included ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. Our guitarists James in Year 11 and Jack C and Jack T in Year 10 certainly raised the volume with their intense performances. Well done all, a fantastic concert. Making it all happen were our student technical team, Conner, James and Stan in Year 11, Austin, Antonio, Bodie and Jack in Year 10 and Luke in Year 9. Our thanks go to them and to Mr. Jackson who was publicly thanked by Larissa who confidently talked about the difference that Music makes to our school community. A proud moment. 

Our congratulations go to James in Year 8 who was awarded a Talent for Writing Certificate of Merit from Young Writers following his competition entry last month. His work will be published in an upcoming Stranger Sagas 2026 and the competition winners will be published next month. A fantastic achievement! Well done James.

We’ve had two external visitors this week; one of our governors, Ian Yapp and our LA Senior Education Adviser, Jon Norden. They both independently commented on the calm and purposeful environment around school, positive relationships, ‘Interactions between students and with adults were respectful and courteous throughout.’ and the high quality of teaching and learning. 

This morning we welcomed Year 5 from Boroughbridge Primary School for a happy numbers session in Maths with Mrs. Valentine. Year 5 showed what excellent mathematicians they are, very quickly identifying happy numbers. We’ll look forward to welcoming them back later in the year. 

Our Sports Leaders have been in action today, both leading and learning. Having been invited to lead a Kin-Ball session at the Colour Run Wellbeing Festival in June our students took part in a training session before, in the afternoon, supporting with a primary school games event. Exciting times!

We’re looking forward to welcoming Year 7 Parents and Carers next Wednesday for their face to face Parent/Carer evening. 

Have a lovely weekend!