Academic success is and always will be vital but we know it has to be achieved in the right and proper way. We never take this privileged position as organisation of first choice and academic success for granted: we continue to ensure that all students are treated as individuals with personalised needs that extend beyond the purely academic because we know it is when students feel safe, happy and confident that success follows.
In this bulletin, we hope to give a flavour of all the terrific things your child experiences and which hinge on the above premises and our C.O.R.E. values.
What is really heartening is that in a wider culture which perhaps foregrounds the individual, so many of our students demonstrate a commitment to others. For example, we have already raised over £200 so far this year on supporting three separate charities: Christian Aid for relief to North Africa, Race for Life and MacMillan. The images here are lovely ones showing how students ‘went green’ or ‘went pink’ to show support for the latter charities:

 

        

Amongst other things in a term rich with opportunity, we have launched our Enrichment Programme for 2023-24 to both Year 12 and Year 13 and are delighted at the enthusiasm shown for the offer. Some of these are teacher-led (sport, E.P.Q., dance, for example) but many of them are self.

 

It is positive testimony to the students that this has run so smoothly – especially those which are self-regulated - and these pictures hopefully give a flavour:

 

 

     

Our P.S.H.E. (personal, social and health education) programme is now an established and formal part of your child’s timetabled experience as we prepare them for life beyond school and Sixth Form. Covering topics such as Mental Health and physical wellbeing, students have likewise engaged with this in a laudably enthusiastic way. In Year 13, this is supplemented by the recently-launched Personal Development sessions specifically designed to help students be increasingly independent and to tackle the challenges of life post-18: for example, cooking, financial management, first aid.

Additionally, our assembly programme has focused on the notion of “High Expectation, Deep Support” and, where last year we foregrounded Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we build on the previous by exploring and linking provision to Covey’s approach to wellbeing. We have then linked this with some key issues such as Black History Month and Charity launches. 
What we have really valued is the proactivity shown by students as they have led on recognition of things such as Black History Month and in the support of whole-school events such as the Meet the Tutor Event and the Prospective Year 7 Open Evening.
We look forward to many of them also supporting with the upcoming Sixth Form Open Evening on November 9th.

Thanks to Mrs Barley-Morey and Mrs O’Donnell for organising a terrific Post-18 Careers Event on October 19th. With representatives from the gaming industry, the Armed Forces, Higher Education and apprenticeship providers, it was great to see our students so invested in understanding Future Pathways available to them.

   

  

It was lovely to see those who could join us at our Meet the Tutor Evening on October 16th. It was a really positive evening and cements that link between school and home which is so vital. We will share at a later date the fuller outcomes of the Year 12 Transition Surveys that we have recently issued for students in Year 12 and parents.

We are delighted that 14 students have submitted applications to Oxbridge or for Medicine – those areas (along with conservatoires, dentistry and veterinary science) where there is an earlier, October deadline for applications. We now move in to the critical period of ensuring all Year 13 students have clear options for the future and that all submit their applications by our internal deadline of December. Please continue to support your child in this process.  Parents should please recall that a PowerPoint was made available to you back in July and can be found on the Sixth Form tab of the main school website – this includes IAG on UCAS but also other Future Pathways such as apprenticeships.

We are very proud of the student leaders who have helped so much already with the events like the Open Evenings alluded to above and in marking key events in the calendar. Not only will it support UCAS, employment and apprenticeship applications: it also links back to the notion of providing opportunities for students to excel in a range of areas.

Hopefully, all of the above is testimony to our dedication to the school’s CO.R.E. values and those associated principles (Safe, Happy, Confident, Successful and High Challenge, Deep Support) which we embrace in the Sixth Form.

Without parental support, all of this success would potentially founder or certainly not work so effectively and so, as ever, we extend our thanks to you.

Steve Taylor
Head of Sixth Form