Update from the Head - 13th November 2026
Dear Parents,
They say life begins at 40—well if that’s true then Balcarras School can start living! On Thursday the school celebrated its 40th birthday. Balcarras was officially opened on November 12th 1986 by the Mayor of Cheltenham Councillor D.N. Perry in the presence of the first headteacher, Nigel Cooke, and the four original patrons of the school.
From left to right: Councillor D N Perry Mayor of Cheltenham, Winifred Foley, Peter Selvey, Nigel Cooke, Tom Graveney and Gordon Ottewell
Balcarras in fact began its journey in September 1986, originally formed as part of the reorganisation of Cheltenham’s education system. Charlton Kings County Secondary School, which was a secondary modern, was closed in August 1986 and a new comprehensive school opened here on the same site at East End Road. The governors of the new school chose the name ‘Balcarras’—the road that runs along the school’s Eastern boundary is called Balcarras Road. Whoever made that final decision made a good choice in my view. The name has just the right number of syllables and you’re unlikely ever to be confused with anyone else!
In becoming a comprehensive Balcarras’ natural goal was to be a community school serving the interests of ALL local children no matter what their starting point or background. 40 years later that remains our aim.
Very many of us who work here have devoted the greater part of our careers to the school. Our longest serving member of staff, Ian Davidson, has worked here throughout those 40 years and there are loads of people who have notched well over two decades of service to the school. We are proud to work at Balcarras and proud of the young people we serve.
Happy Birthday Balcarras!
School Improvement Partner Visit
The motto of the school is from strength to strength…so we are always looking for ways to improve still further. We did a little bit of that on Monday spending the day with our School Improvement Partner Julie Tridgell. Julie comes to the school three times a year and advises on ways we might look to improve the school still further. It was a really interesting day.
Remembrance
On Wednesday the whole school (over 1500 pupils and staff) gathered around the flagpole to remember the sacrifice of those who have lost their lives in war. I said a few words before Theo and Will played the Last Post and the Reveille. We were joined on the lawn by several pupils who are Cadets. It was a very fitting occasion. A copy of my talk is available on the website here:
https://www.balcarras.gloucs.sch.uk/news/?pid=3&nid=1&storyid=1584
Fundraising Opportunities
Due to the email problems with Outlook we have extended the deadline until 5pm on Monday.
Balcarras are offering a fantastic opportunity to sponsor the School Production which runs from Tuesday 8th December until Friday 11th December (4 performances) which this year will be “Guys and Dolls”. We are inviting local businesses and community partners to join us as sponsors for this exciting event. Each evening has a capacity crowd of over 270.
Options for sponsorship are as follows:
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Main Sponsor
We are looking for a main sponsor for the event and we would be looking for a donation of £850+.
In exchange for this we would offer:
· Logo on all posters and advertising for the event which would include the school website and school social media streams (Facebook/X and Linkedin).
· Page advert in the programme on all 4 evenings of the performance.
· We would be willing to display any sign that you wish to provide on the evening.
· Verbal thanks on the evening.
· Main sponsor logo displayed on screen before the performance and mentioned in the play introduction.
· Thank you in the “Update from the Headteacher” at the end of the year (circulation of 2200+ email addresses).
Partner Sponsor
We would be looking for a donation of £500+.
In exchange for this we would offer:
· Logo on all posters and advertising for the event which would include the school website and school social media streams (Facebook/X and Linkedin).
· Verbal thanks on the evening.
· Partner sponsor logo displayed on screen before the performance and mentioned in the play introduction.
· Thank you in the “Update from the Headteacher” at the end of the year (circulation of 2200+ email addresses).
In previous years we have been able to facilitate one main sponsor and two partner sponsors.
As time is short, we would ask all of those interested to email ksa@balcarras.gloucs.sch.uk by 5pm on Monday 15th November 2026.
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Cross Country Success
Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to represent Cheltenham District in the County Cross Country Finals at Newent on 6th December. These students have been selected after their excellent performance in the District Round in October which saw Balcarras come out as the most successful school winning four of the 8 competitions. Good luck to you all as you attempt to make it into the County Squad at the South West Regional Finals later in the term!
Year 7: Alice
Year 8: Otto, Charlie, Joe, Jack, Matilda, Ava
Year 9: Toby
Year 10: Isla, Sienna, Monty, Dylan
Year 11: Noah, Harry, Ethan, Amy, Rosie, Eva
Year 12: Patrick, Locke
Lockdown practice
On Mon 23rd Nov 2026 at 3:25pm, the school will practice the lockdown procedure.
This is nothing to worry about.
Tutors are going to talk with tutees about the practice, so that all pupils are reassured about the procedures to follow.
A siren will sound.
Pupils will then be asked to sit quietly at their desks. The class teacher will close the classroom door and the windows.
When the practice is over, the classroom teacher will inform the pupils, and they are then free to go home as normal. It should last approximately 10 minutes.
When we have all practised this procedure, pupils will then know what to do if the siren is heard at any time in the future.
If, in the future, the siren goes off at break time or lunch time, pupils should make their way quickly and quietly to their tutor room.
If pupils are outside doing PE, then they will go to the sports hall, pavilion or gym. Their PE teacher will tell them where to go.
Visit of COSTCO to the staff room
We had a lovely visit from Costco in Gloucester this week in to speak to our staff. They are opening in December and so staff were given the opportunity to join up!
Young Enterprise – Bingo
Please do come along and support the Young Enterprise Team. Tickets are available to book on Eventbrite here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/christmas-bingo-tickets-2003777339964
Year 8’s Mascots!
Over half term the year 8 girls football team were mascots for Miss Liggett’s football team. On Thursday evening the year 8’s went by minibus to Kayte Lane to mascot the match Cheltenham Town vs Swindon Town. They walked the players out onto the pitch and look part in a penalty shoot out at half time. At the end of the match the students collected autographs from both teams. It was a very exciting match with lots of great football and drama – an evening I’m sure they will remember for a long time.
Vacancies
The Balcarras Trust are looking to fill the following vacancies:
All the information can be found on the Balcarras website here:
https://www.thebalcarrastrust.co.uk/page/?title=Vacancies&pid=12
Great Speech at Boost Dinner
In Year 12 we run something called ‘Boost’. This programme aims to support pupils who are applying for post 18 options. As part of the programme Mr Niblett organises several Boost Dinners. These take place after school and normally involve pupils speaking on a given topic. Mr Niblett sent me a copy of a speech written by Sophie who had been asked to speak on the topic of preparing for an uncertain future. It is a great speech and both Mr Niblett and I thought we should share it with you.
When I think about looking forward, the first thing that comes to mind is going to university, something I find myself looking forward to more and more every day. But looking forward means much more than just my life plans. I’ve stated to become increasingly aware of the changes happening in the world around me, and whilst I don’t understand how these changes will affect our future, I think it’s important to find this uncertainty exciting rather than daunting.
So thinking about the changes in the world, I’m sure everyone instantly thinks of AI, something that’s gone from being completely irrelevant to a rush to humanity in under 5 years, no one could have predicted that. The future is changing faster than we could possibly keep up with, and it makes you wonder how much of what we are preparing for will actually be relevant in ten or twenty years.
If you’d asked me five years ago what the world would look like now, I wouldn’t have been close. And I don’t think I’ll be much better at predicting what it’ll look like in another five years. But maybe that’s a good thing, I don’t want to live in a world where I know what’s coming next.
The prompt for this speech asked whether I’ll be ready to live in the world I will find myself in. And honestly, I don’t know, I’m sure we will all have to adapt, in fact I think it’s strange that we are expected to make decisions about our futures now when I’m sure everything will look completely different. I don’t think we can ever be prepared for the future, or how to know whether we’re ready or not, but I do know that we can make an effort to understand the world around us.
There is no way to know exactly what kind of world we’ll live in, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore what’s happening around us. Instead, perhaps we should focus on following the paths that interest us and think about how we can contribute to the world we want to live in. So I’m not worried about having me entire career planned out. Right now, I’m focused on continuing to enjoy studying Biology and exploring where that might take me. I know that the world will probably look very different by the time I leave university, and I’m sure there will be opportunities for me then that that don’t exist now. So I think that being ready isn’t about knowing exactly what the future holds, but about making the most of what we can do now and being willing to adapt when things change, because I’m sure they will.
It is a great speech.
Right that is it from me. I don’t have anything planned for the weekend which in a way is rather nice. I’m just going to chill out. I hope you have a nice weekend.
Dominic Burke