Dear parents, 

Welcome to the weekly update. 

Firstly apologies that the first newsletter of the year is not out this week…..it is imminent. 

The first full week has gone really well and there is a lovely atmosphere in the school. Your children continue to be a real credit to you. I wanted to pay a particular tribute to our new Year 7 students…what a lovely group they are. It can’t have been easy joining a new school under these circumstances but they have settled in superbly well. 

I am pleased with how the school is operating. The split day and the one way system are working well. We have had a number of single year group assemblies this week but from next week we will suspend assemblies until further notice. We continue to keep our arrangements under constant review.  

Cashless Catering 

The new system is up and running and it seems to be going well. If you have any problems then please do get in touch. 

Sponsored Walk 

The Sponsored Walk was due to take place on Friday 25^th September. We have decided to postpone this event until later in the year. 

Open Week 

If you know of anyone who is interested in attending one of our open events please point them in the direction of our website. I want to give you all advanced notice that we won’t be running our traditional open evening on Thursday 24^th September. This means that we won’t now be finishing early on the Thursday. Instead all of our pupils will have period 5 with their tutor.  

Plans for the Year Ahead 

This week I have begun meeting the Heads of Department to discuss with them the state of play as regards catching up on work from last year. The situation is under control and the HODs are confident that the students will go on to achieve just as highly as usual. I will be back in touch with more detail on our plans in due course. 

I want to reassure you that we are also planning for all contingencies as regards a further lockdown. Whilst at the moment transmission rates seem to be low in the Gloucestershire area we have a number of plans being worked up for running during a full or partical lockdown. 

School Photographs 

The school photographs will happen next week but over two days this year. Wednesday 16^th September will be Year 7, 11, 12 1nd 13. Thursday 17^th September will be Year 8, 9 and 10. 

We will not be able to offer family photos this year. 

Prefect Assembly 

Today we finally had the chance to run the Year 11 prefect assembly and gave ourt badges to House Prefects, School Prefects and appointed the Officers for each House. Well done to everyone who received a badge. Year 11 are a super year group and they will be fine role models for the younger years.  

Finally I wish you all a nice weekend. I’m going to watch Liverpool vs Leeds on Saturday afternoon. Fingers crossed!  

Dominic Burke