I hope this letter finds you and your families well; a Friday update for you as always.
Firstly, I hope you have received and read my letter yesterday, regarding the strike action next week.
Please use the following link to access it if you haven’t already seen it: Industrial Strike Action
02.02.23 The key detail to glean is that school will be closed to most students on Wednesday 1st
February next week.
This week has been a busy one in school, as they all seem to be, with exciting events taking place
throughout the week. On Tuesday afternoon, Year 9 were treated to a visit from Dr Agnes Kaposi, a
holocaust survivor. Agnes was truly inspirational, retelling her story about the camps, the
persecution of Jewish people, her family and her escape from Soviet controlled Hungary in 1956.
Agnes spoke to the students about the importance of education and seeking out opportunity.
Throughout Agnes demonstrated to our students the importance of resilience, without which, Agnes
would not be where she is now.
With a trip to Chelsea Football Club for our Year 10 and 11 Business students, and our Classicists on a two-day residential trip to Bath, it has been an exciting and busy week. Our athletes had a fixture full week with our girl footballers heading out to play their matches on astroturf, and our Year 7 boys basketball team facing local rivals Leytonstone - with the semi finals in their sight.
Wednesday Evening was our rescheduled Evening of Excellence. On this evening, we welcomed
back students from last year’s Year 11 who made the most progress in their GCSE results. Students
from the current Year 10 and 11 were invited too, as we laid down the gauntlet to them, for the
years to come. We had two guest speakers on the evening, alumnus Jessica Tunks, and Charlie
Andrew, director of Maximum Classics. It was particularly nice to welcome back Jessica, our former
Deputy Head Girl from the Class of 2019. She is currently studying psychology at Magdalen College, Oxford University. It was great for students to hear from a peer; her insights into what it means to excel in the modern world in which we live.
It was also lovely to welcome so many families to the Year 7 Progress Evening on Thursday evening. I hope you received some useful feedback on the progress of your child and that you were able to build relationships with your child’s teachers; so important as students move through the school.
In support of our wider community, Year 9 students put together some care packages for less
fortunate children/those in need. The care packages were distributed to an Islamic Association
yesterday.
I am delighted to share that several of our English students have had their poetry works published
following their recent success in the Young Writers competition. For information how you can order
your copy of ‘The Power of Poetry - Tomorrow’s voices’ please email: info@youngwriers.co.uk or see the young writers website for more details: www.youngwriters.co.uk
Attached for your information is a leaflet about the Volunteer Police Cadets, aimed at 13-18 year old's sessions are held at various local venues.
Finally, congratulations to Brandon Parry 11K who topped the rewards points chart last week with
thirty. That’s two Year 11s in a row now, great to see them leading the way – keep up the good
work.
Yours sincerely
Mr Sam Jones
Headteacher