Headteacher's Weekly Update
This half term has begun with lots of activity, a breakfast club is offering refreshments to start the day and a we have a range of clubs throughout lunchtime and afterschool not to mention the significant number of afterschool intervention sessions available to Year 11 preparing for their GCSEs. One of our Year 10 teams won the Suffolk Maths Feast competition with our other team coming in as runners up and Year 9 leaders of the future took part in a leadership conference with students from all over south west Ipswich and south Suffolk.
In February, we took many Year 11 students to “bootcamp” on Mersea Island where they read letters from their Year 7 selves about their hopes for the future before more contemporary motivational letters from family, friends and others who care about them. Then they experienced a mixture of revision and well-being sessions inside as well as attempting high ropes, climbing walls, assault courses and other challenging physical activities outside; they proved to themselves that a “can do” attitude makes anything possible. Staff and parents/carers volunteered to experience the sitting down part of bootcamp, learning about promoting well-being and study skills; Mr Ismay has a recipe book which promotes some recipes which will help hard working teens keep up their energy levels, if you would like a copy, contact him at the school!
This term Year 11 have practical assessments in Art, Music, Drama, PE, DT, Health and Social Care, and English so the countdown to these significant exams is well under way. On the lighter side, plans for prom are also well under way with something lovely to look forward to when all the hard work is done.
At the other end of the school, we begin to look ahead to our new Year 7s for September as we had a list of names of students who will be joining us from local primary schools. This is an exciting time for us and for many of the students in Year 6 although the prospect of leaving a current school and joining high school can feel slightly daunting. That is why we are already making contact with schools and families to begin our transition work.
Please be aware that changes are coming in for any student who travels on a bus and is funded by Suffolk Country Council; these are students with a photo ID bus pass. Students joining us from Year 6 have to apply online to indicate that they will need transport and in addition parents/carers of students currently in Years 7-10 will also need to go to www.suffolkonboard.com and “opt in”. This needs to be done by 31st May 2019.