Communication between school and home is really important. Often this is through our students but we do recognize that they sometimes don’t see it as their top priority(!) and so the other parties – the school and parents and carers – need to work to ensure that it is in place.

We have had a number of Parent Information Evenings this week for Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 to provide a sense of what is to come and the support on offer over the course of the academic year. We hope that these were useful for those who attended and the information disseminated and presentations are available for anyone who was unable to attend. Further events for Years 7, 8 and 9, will follow over the next couple of weeks with a mix of in-person and virtual communication.

All of these events are of course just the start of the year ahead and starting well is important. As I wrote at the end of last year, we are going to continue with online Parents’ Evenings this year in the same format following feedback from families but we are also keen to get parents and carers “in the building” as often as we can as we adjust to the “new normal”. As ever, please do get in touch with the school if you have any questions, concerns or queries and we will ensure that staff get back to you as soon as they can.

Speaking of the “new normal” it has been great to feel the school getting back to operating close to the ways in which we used are to. This week there have been practices and training (with fixtures soon to follow!), auditions, trips and visits. All of these things are a core part of what we do as a school and it is great to have them back. A recent addition to our school life has been the relaunch of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme and it is thriving. Over the past and next few weekends our students have been out and about on expeditions for their Bronze and Silver Awards and this has been simply brilliant. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of our staff who have given their time to support our students with the expeditions and also a big well done to everyone who completed their awards during last year in spite of all the disruption – a great achievement.