This week has been dominated by induction events for what will become our new Year 7 students. Throughout the week, we have hosted tours for the Year 6 students. We also held our induction evenings for parents on Wednesday and Thursday. It has been a pleasure to meet so many of our new students and their parents. I am looking forward to getting to know them better and to working with them from September.

The hot weather continued this week and so the students continued to wear their PE kit to school. The overwhelming majority have done this perfectly and have coped with the weather with the minimum of fuss. The weather is forecast to cool down over the weekend (typical!) and remain cooler at the beginning of the week, so it will be back to normal uniform on Monday. We will, of course, review the forecast early next week in case it moves from warm to hotter weather once again.

We often talk to the students about the importance of road safety and insist on all our students wearing helmets if they ride their bikes to school. The importance of this was once again brought home this week when one of our students was knocked off his bike. Thankfully, the student is fine, and only suffered minor injuries. His helmet certainly helped. The response of the other students present was outstanding and helped us manage what was clearly a difficult situation. A huge thank you to the very many members of the local community who helped the student (and those who offered to help).

Throughout this academic year, eight of our Year 10 students have been completing independent research as part of our Critical Research Project. The students were invited to find a topic, person or event from history that still had significant cultural importance today. The topics ranged from the emotional importance of animation, how liberating and also condemning fashion can be to the physical and emotional impact of war on societies.

This week saw the culmination of 10 months of research and writing with the printing of the essays in the collection But Why? and an evening of readings at our first symposium. Each student presented a new piece of writing that outlined the concerns of their project. It was a privilege to be part of this evening, along with families, friends and staff, and to see the students reading with passion and conviction in a way that represented their skills as young writers. Many thanks to Mr Holliday for expertly guiding these students through this fabulous project, and to the students involved for embracing the opportunity with such gusto!

The penultimate activity for our Outdoor Ed group was probably the best so far... gorge scrambling in the Pwll y Berw and Afon Hepste rivers in the Glyn-Neath area of South Wales. Gorge scrambling is essentially walking along a steep-sided, narrow river valley, scrambling up / through obstacles, such as waterfalls, pools, weirs and sluice gates. In certain locations, the group were also able to scramble up to high points which allowed them to make adrenalin-fuelled jumps into naturally created plunge pools. This challenged the students to overcome their fears and to make them realise they can achieve more than they initially think, a key objective of the course.

There were a number of cricket fixtures this week including:

• Year 9 Cricket - the Year 9 cricket team played their final match of the season against St Peter's this week. The boys batted well, with Harry T in particular scoring some outstanding boundaries. There were also some well taken wickets, as well as some great fielding in limiting St Peter's runs to help secure the win. Player of the day went to Harry for his excellent batting and two wickets. 

• All Stars Cricket - on Monday the boys put on their sun cream, and filled their water bottles for the return fixture against Holmleigh Park. HP went into bat first and a strong bowling performance limited them to just 55 runs from their 12 overs. Special mention to Charles C who took a wicket with his first delivery. A strong batting performance from SV saw the team earn a comfortable victory.

• All Stars Cricket – the All Stars then travelled down to Newent in what is always a tough game against a talented Newent side. Newent batted first and scored an imposing 141. Rhys L and Olly W led a heroic chase which saw the All Stars fall just 12 runs short of Newent’s mammoth total. It was truly a great game. Congratulations to Olly who scored his first 50; it most certainly won’t be his last. Well done all who played.

Good luck to the girls sports teams who are off on tour to Condover Hall this weekend. I’m sure you will have a great time.

As always, I include my weekly reminder about Free School Meals eligibility. If your financial circumstances have changed, your child may be eligible for Free School Meals. If you click on this link  you will find guidance on the eligibility criteria and the application process. It's a quick process and we are notified of all FSM entitlements by Gloucestershire County Council each Monday. I would urge you to take a look if you think you may benefit from financial assistance.   

I do hope you enjoy a great weekend.

Kind regards,  

Richard Johnson 
Headteacher