The prospect of next week is an exciting one for us all. As at many points over the past year, it feels like the end of one period in time and the start of another – and I think we would all agree that the vaccine gives us the hope that we will not ever have to close schools in such a way again.

We have sent quite a lot of communication home over the past week or so and I am not going to add new information. Monday and Tuesday will be a little disjointed for most of the school community as we test the majority of our students and I would like to thank everyone in advance for their patience and co-operation with this process. As parents and carers are aware, the testing will continue for another couple of weeks in school and again there will be some changes to our normal routines but we are confident that we can get this right. As ever, if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Looking forward, visitors to the school site will have noticed that the tress at the front of the school have now been removed in preparation for the construction of our new teaching block. I think it is fair to say that we all feel somewhat uncomfortable when trees are cut down but please be assured that it is a requirement of the project that they are replaced in kind and that this will happen. Regarding the new building, work will begin properly in the last week in March and run for twelve months. We will keep all members of the school community updated with its progress and an overview of the project can be found here. It has been a long time coming and we are delighted that it is about to start.

Linked to the project is the new car park in St George’s Road which will be completed this month. As many of you are aware, we are very fortunate as a school to have the support of the Walter Bigg Foundation and they have been extremely generous with their support for this project. At their instigation, I am delighted to let you know that next to the car park in the area bordering Millington Road a biodiversity area is going to be developed which we hope will be for the benefit not just of our students but also children from local primary schools and more broadly members of the local community. We will share a recorded assembly with students about this development at the end of next week as we are keen to involve them with all aspects of the planning and I will provide a further information on this great project in next week’s Headteacher’s Message.