MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF SECONDARY – 29TH MARCH 2019

Dear Students, Parents and Colleagues,

It was wonderful to see 67 parents at Tuesday’s Parent Workshop: “How can I get my child into the university of their choice?”. Ms Allen is looking to do more of these over the next Term that will focus on age groups and countries, so that even more parents can get even more information. Our main aim was to show that the ultimate goal of a student getting their final choice is a team effort, between the student, child and school.

Many of our students had a very challenging two days last Sunday and Monday in the local World Scholar’s Cup. A team of 29 Students debated and problem solved a multitude of challenges. We had lots of individual successes with ten trophies, double last year’s haul. We also had every student returning with a medal! I have heard that both days were long and a little gruelling so I was very impressed to see the commitment of students to be in school on Tuesday. I would like to give a huge thanks to Ms Waszczylko, Ms Dixon, M. Poulain and Ms Allen for their support in leading the team of students to such success. The students did very well but they needed the opportunity to get there.

We had a big focus on well-being all week, as our Sixth Form team and students undertook the RUOK? Programme to help students develop the skills of active listening. The main steps are:

1. Ask
2. Listen
3. Encourage action
4. Check in

Our Sixth Form students designed and delivered, supervised lessons to all Y7-11 students this week. A strength of the British educational system is its understanding that academic success is underpinned by a strong pastoral culture that builds a child’s well-being. All our teachers are practitioners of pastoral care as well as being subject specialists. Please take a moment to ask your children how RUOK? works.

Finally we finished the week on a House Charity day with games, House T-shirts and fund-raising. We continue this theme of fun on Sunday at the Primary Campus with our rescheduled Spring Fair. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Kind regards

Nigel Wilsonlock

Head of Secondary