It has been a great week as each College held their half term awards assemblies where students were presented with commendation certificates based on the number of college points they had gained. Well done to all certificate winners. I have also shown visitors from another school around this week and it was great to see students from all year groups practising the revision techniques best suited to each subject in their lessons. This will help prepare students on how best to prepare for assessments in each subject.  Our guests were really impressed by the focus of the students in their learning.  READ MORE

Just one more week to go, and it would be great if we could hit the 94% attendance average for the week. Please encourage the students for one final push. Next week will also see each College host an awards assembly where we will be presenting commendation certificates to students based on the points totals they have gained so far. We will also be announcing the students who have been selected for the Student Leadership Teams within each College. READ MORE

Wednesday saw the first ACE (Activities, Competition and Events) event as the Colleges battled it out in the Year 7 Inter-College football tournament. It was a great event on a glorious autumn evening, with 53 students representing their colleges. The emphasis was very much on participation and it was great to see so many staff there supporting their Colleges. Congratulations to Apollo College who topped the table but well done to everyone who took part. The Year 8 event is next Wednesday after school. Thank you to Mr Evans for organising the tournament and to our Year 9 and 10 referees, Jacob, Joe, Drew and Seb.  READ MORE

I have felt very proud to be the Headteacher of our school this week. It has been great to see the KS3 college form groups interact so well, and the morning Uno has been very competitive! There has been a great take-up of the Elective clubs after school, with really high levels of attendance. There is a lovely feeling around the school and this was evident on Open Evening when many students helped out as tour guides or supported in departments. Also, Evie and Hayden from Year 11, and Lourenço, Olivia, Lola and Tavis from Year 7 did an exceptional job in speaking to a main hall of visitors.  READ MORE

Our extra-curricular clubs kicked off this week with over 600 enrolments as students sign up to take part in a range of activities from Pokemon to cheerleading, BSL to crochet, word games to our new school newspaper, and many others. F Block was equally busy with trampolining, football, and netball clubs all in action as well. If you are a parent or carer of a Year 7 student, please encourage them to join a club, as they are a great way to make new friends.  READ MORE

One of the highlights of my week was visiting lessons around school and there were many great moments. Miss Frend's Year 11 biologists were stretching themselves to use the correct vocabulary in the correct context; Year 8 students were studying Gothic literature with great levels of stretch and challenge characterised by its emphasis on ambitious vocabulary; Mr Lane and his Year 8 Science class were looking at components of a cell and exploring the etymology of eukaryotes; and Miss Thurtle and her class were exploring the Helloween theme music. Year 7 have made a great start to their Thurstable career and have adapted to the transition brilliantly.  READ MORE