07 January 2025
Dear parents and families,
With one week to go of this term, I am pleased to share some news and some upcoming events for your diaries.
In this letter:
· Kooth online mental health and wellbeing support for young people
· PPE exams for Y11
· SPACE students share their work in our community
· Coming up next term
· Site improvements and project start dates
Kooth
We are grateful to the youth mental health support charity, Kooth, for delivering assemblies to our students last week. They shared details about the free, online support that their organisation can provide, all day everyday. If you are interested in seeing which services are available, please visit their website on www.kooth.com Or you can email [email protected]
PPE Exams for Y11
Our Year 11 students are preparing for their final set of ‘mocks’ before the GCSE exam series begins in the summer. We are incredibly proud of the maturity and determination shown by this year group and we wish them all well in their revision and preparation.
The exams do cause a degree of disruption to the usual running of the school, as we have to re-room some lessons to allow certain classrooms to be used for students entitled to exam access arrangements. Room changes are posted on the doors to the blocks affected, and also on the door to the main reception building. We would appreciate parents’ support in encouraging your children to check the posters and class charts announcements, to be ready for these changes and to move around the academy quietly and respectfully at this time.
SPACE students sharing with with our community
We are extremely proud of our VI form SPACE company members who have had a successful week sharing their work in our community. David Duthie, the Company Director, said, “ The SPACE Company Members had the choice between creating a theatre in education piece for local primary schools, with a show and a workshop with their pupils, or a dance project for settings for children with additional needs, including our own Cedar Centre. This included an acting piece exploring the story of Amelia Earhart and the sensory dance for SEND students centred on emotions.” Please do follow the SPACE on Instagram, to see pictures of the company’s work on this project, and others.
Coming up next term
Dates for your diary:
· Thursday 13 February 2025 is our Young Musician of the Year final, held in the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre
· Year 11 PPE exams begin on Monday 10 February 2025 and continue into the first week back after the holiday.
· The school is closed for half term between Monday 17.02.25 and Monday 24.02.25.
· The first day back for students is Tuesday 25.02.25. Monday 24.02.25 is an Inset training day for staff.
· Year 8 have their subject parents’ evening on Thursday 06.03.25. More details will follow to the parents of Year 8, from Mrs Ashton.
· Year 11 photos will be taken on Tuesday 18.03.25
· Year 9 tutor evening is on Thursday 27.03.25
· Our Easter Concert will take place on Thursday 03 April 2025
· The last day of term is Friday 04 April 2025. Unusually, the Easter bank holiday weekend falls at the end of our two-week break; something to look out for when planning holidays or trips away.
Site improvements and project start dates
After the half-term break, work will begin around the school site to improve and update toilet blocks, Science labs and our fire safety systems. This will inevitably cause some disruption to the usual running of the school. However, the work is desperately needed and long overdue. As soon as we have a confirmed schedule of work, we will invite any parents that are interested to join an online meeting to see the plans for the site and to hear a little more about how we manage these whilst the school remains open.
With thanks for your continuing support.
Mrs H. Jones
Principal
