It has been a very busy penultimate week of the term.

On Thursday, we held our annual Helping Your Child to Achieve Evening for our KS4 students. This provides parents of our Year 10 and 11 students lots of useful advice to help them to help their children maximise their potential across these crucial years. It was a delight to see so many parents in attendance. This year we also had a range of post 16 providers and employers in attendance which gave the students and their parents the chance to find out about the range of opportunities in the area.

On Wednesday our Year 8s watched the impactful “Chelsea's story”. Recently redeveloped, Chelsea’s story remains at the heart of the production, with its focus on sexual exploitation, but the play is now more multimedia in its presentation and includes two additional story threads. The first introduces Josh, a male survivor of child sexual exploitation. His story allows for exploration around some of the different barriers that can prevent boys and young men from recognising exploitation or asking for help. The second introduces Amara, whose story explores grooming and exploitation taking place through online spaces. This strand uses the multimedia elements of the production and helps bring the realities of online contact, manipulation and grooming into the wider story. We hope that this production has supported our students to recognise that grooming and exploitation can take different forms and affect people in different ways.

21 of our KS3 and KS4 students performed at Gloucester Cathedral on Wednesday evening as a preamble to a concert by the Verity Standen Vocal group which is currently touring the UK. The school was offered the opportunity to develop three original vocal pieces and worked with one of the group's professional singers. Bianca was an inspiration with each session led by her amazing voice and creative inspiration. The group performed beautifully in front of a standing audience of over two hundred and received many compliments about their performance and professionalism.  This project was made possible by our strong links with Strike a Light, and the educational outreach work they facilitate on behalf of professional arts and music organisations. We are looking forward to our future collaborations.

We also held our Rowing Challenge which saw George Ashworth (Year 9) go head-to-head with Mr Brown and Mr Constable in a 2km challenge. It was an incredibly tight battle with George making a quick start and edging into the lead. A determined effort by Mr Brown saw him emerge victorious as George tired in the latter stages. It was a fantastic event with an enthusiastic crowd cheering on all 3 competitors. It also saw a lot of money raised for the chosen charity, Meningitis Now. Thanks to all who have been so generous with their donations.

Also on the sporting front, the following fixtures took place this week:

Year 7 Netball - the Year 7s had their first game representing Severn Vale. The girls battled well in what was a good game played in an excellent spirit. They lost 18-8 but have lots of positives to work on in training over the remainder of the term.  Players of the match were Lucrezia P and Iris K.

Year 7 Rugby – the Year 7 boys continued their unbeaten run in a mass participation event against Archway on Thursday. 28 boys represented the school in 8 mini-games. Archway were strong and very physical, but we more than matched them in the majority of games. The boys are really starting to play as a team now and are improving their rugby skills week by week. It was great to see so many boys experiencing school rugby and enjoying the comradery that comes with it. There were some standout performances again from Arthur, Freddie, Ceejay, Sam, Rylee, Donnie, Koby and Quazeem. We look forward to taking on Gloucester Academy next week.

Year 7 Football – the Year 7 girls had a fab time at Churchdown playing their first football games for Severn Vale. The A team battled back from 4-0 down to draw with some lovely play and confidence as the game went on. Player of the match went to Mayah. The B team battled hard against a very strong Churchdown team but unfortunately lost out on first place. Player of the match went to Millie. Well done ladies. 

Year 8 Netball – the Year 8s put in a fantastic display in their first game of the season, coming away with a very strong win (24-4). There was some brilliant netball on display from the entire team. Player of the match was Ella Williams.

Year 8 Rugby – it was a fantastic performance and result from our Year 8 rugby team in their second fixture of the season against Archway! The boys showed brilliant bounce back ability after a heavy loss a couple of weeks ago against Holmleigh Park, with some much improved tackling and ball carrying on display to come away with the win. Lots of contenders for player of the game, but it was given to Jayden S for his fearless tackling and pace on the wing to score a try. Special mention to Jem and Charlie C for their many tackles! 

Year 10 Rugby – On Monday evening, we hosted Maidenhill in our first rugby fixture against them for over 16 years. It was fantastic to see such a large squad involved, including several Year 9 students stepping up to represent the team. Over the past month, Gloucester Rugby have been working with our Year 8 and Year 10 classes during PE lessons. As a result, we had three students make their rugby debut, which is exactly what school sport is all about. Our boys produced an excellent performance to secure a 55-10 victory. Special mentions go to TJ, Cameron and Josh Griffiths, who led the team superbly from start to finish. Congratulations also to Josh Drew, Theo Brown and Jake Wyeman, who all played their first game for the school.

KS4 Football – our KS4 girls team played St. Peter’s in the second round of the ESFA Cup. As expected, it was a tough battle against a good St. Peter’s team. The girls put in a really strong performance with some excellent defending at the end to hold on and earn a 4 – 3 victory. Player of the Match was Izzy Noyes.

And finally, congratulations to Sammy Ciba who represented Gloucestershire Schools against Bristol City this week. Well done Sammy, we are all very proud!

As always, I end with my weekly reminder about Free School Meals eligibility. From the 2026 - 2027 academic year, eligibility is being expanded to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit regardless of household earnings. This widens the scope of eligibility and means many more families should now qualify. Please do check the updated information, which can also be found here, to see if that includes you.  

I do hope you have a great weekend.  

Regards  

Richard Johnson 

Headteacher