10^th September 2021

Dear Parents/ Guardians,

Welcome to the start of the 2021-2022 academic year. I hope you all had a good summer holiday and enjoyed the time together.

May I take this opportunity to congratulate you and your children for returning to school so smartly dressed, in a positive frame of mind and eager to see what this year brings. As you will be aware, the majority of restrictions in place to prevent the spread of COVID 19 in schools was removed over the summer holidays. We have been incredibly fortunate to have such a low number of cases since the pandemic began. At the end of the first week, 98% of students consented to be tested and were tested using the Lateral flow device. The outcome of this is that only two students, one in Year 7 and one in Year 11 tested positive.  Four members of staff have tested positive since our return. All are well and fortunately only suffering mild symptoms. We will continue to test our students next week as well as staff. We will review our position on a weekly basis and whether at any point we need to apply additional measures such as wearing face coverings in corridors and communal areas. At the moment we do not need to make any changes, but should cases rise we may implement this in the future.

Today your son/daughter are having their college photograph taken and I hope you take up the opportunity to purchase a picture as it is always a special memory to keep that you can look back in many years to come. Details on this will come out shortly via your son/daughter’s tutor.

We have all been so proud of our Year 11 students, the class of 2021 that have just left us. 84% achieved grades 4-9 in English and Maths and 58% achieved grades 5-9. Despite all the challenges they have had to face, they left with a well-deserved set of grades and are currently all either at college, in employment or on an apprenticeship. The challenge for the year ahead is to keep this momentum going as our students continue to raise the bar as we maintain our high expectations.

As you may be aware, the college is heavily oversubscribed in all year groups and we welcomed our new Year 7 cohort on Monday. We are very impressed with how well they have all coped with the change and how quickly the students are settling in to their classes. A huge thank you to the Year 11 prefects for supporting them with the transition, to Miss Provenzano, Miss Cecil and Sally Odam, our transition team for ensuring this week has gone well.

Now as we start the school year, please can I ask that you help by making sure that students have their planners signed weekly, and that the home school agreements are also signed on pages 13 to 19.  The planner has information about the topics students are studying in each lesson so that hopefully you can keep up with their lessons and have conversations at home about the learning journey.  They will also include a record of your child’s homework, which is a crucial part of the learning process. Thanks in anticipation for your help with this.

You may or may not be aware about our forthcoming Open Evening on Thursday 7^th October 2021.  Please note the college will close at 12.20pm to prepare for the evening.  I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you of a number of forthcoming events:

1. Year 7 Settling in Evening – Thursday 23^rd September at 5:30pm
2. Year 7 Welcome Mass – Friday 24^th September – 11:20am
3. Year 11 Maths & English Intervention Evening – Wednesday 29^th September 2021 at 6:00pm
4. EARA Day – Non School Uniform – Friday 1^st October 2021
5. Open Evening, Half Day Closure, 12:20pm Finish – Thursday 7^th October 2021
6. Year 8 Options Assembly – Friday 8^th October 2021 - 9:00-11:00am
7. Year 8 Curriculum Information Evening – Wednesday 3^rd November 2021 - 6:00pm
8. Year 10 Core Information Evening & Work Experience – Thursday 4^th November 2021 - 6:30pm
9. Class of 2021 GCSE Presentation Evening, Thursday 11^th November
10. Wear Blue, Non uniform day, £1, Anti Bullying Awareness – Friday 19^th November 2021
11. INSET Day: Friday 26^th November 2021
12. Carol Concert – Immaculate Conception – Thursday 9^th December 2021 – 7:00pm
13. Mentoring Day – Thursday 16^th December 2021.

I would like to thank you and your students for their excellent start to the term.  Best wishes for another successful year!

Yours sincerely,

Mr J Habberley                                                              

Head Teacher