Headteacher's weekly Update

The second half of the Autumn term has certainly brought a change in temperature and the weather, not to mention those darker evenings. Can I please encourage all parents/carers to reinforce the messages we send out to our students about being safe on their way into and home from school including being highly visible as they are walking along paths and on their bikes.

We have had a great week back with Year 11 busy on Geography field trips in Ipswich and Southwold, where the weather did not deter their enthusiasm for collecting data about our local environment. Year 11 also had a day focusing on their speaking and presentation skills, led by external trainers, who praised the way our students grew in confidence during the day and supported one another as they shared their ideas within their groups.

We have also been busy in making appointments to the student leadership team this week including our Head Boy and Head Girl. 7 students were shortlisted to speak for 3 minutes at a Year 7 assembly on a topic of their choice and the themes they chose were very varied but all promoted positive messages to our younger students. These students were then invited to interview with the Senior Leadership Team and a Governor before we had the very difficult task of selecting our successful applicants. Dominic Ghobadi and Hollie Burrows take the top positions with Ella Macartney as their deputy. Fortunately we have been able to utilise the skills of all of the applicants and they will have senior prefect roles with outlined responsibility: Adam Rust (Curriculum), Rugile Bertasiute and Abigail Hill (Student Voice) and Anna Austin (Student Wellbeing and Inclusion). Congratulations to them all; they all demonstrated a strong commitment to improving the school environment and experience.