Firstly, a very Happy New Year to all members of the school community and I hope that everyone had a really good break over Christmas. Looking back, the last day of term was brilliant with a lovely atmosphere in school and it made me very proud to see the Walter Bigg meeting room full of donations to the ReadiFood food bank and also to see a car full of donated toys leave school at the end of the day with the Sleigh2Give team for children at Oxford Children’s Hospital. All of this was simply great and a tribute to our school community.
We have started the term with some changes – face masks required in classrooms as well as in communal areas around school and a different approach to mobile devices in school – and the students have adapted very well indeed to both. They also coped admirably with the testing in school on Tuesday and that is hugely to their credit – very well done to all. We have also made a few operational changes so that Year 10 students can access the canteen in the Hall during their lunchtime and are also encouraging students to access the bottom tennis courts at lunchtime as the field is very much out of bounds at this time of the year. These are due to feedback we have had from the form tutor reps when they have met with our Students Leaders and seem like very sensible steps.
Finally, as we cope with face masks for the vast majority of the school day we are all - staff and students alike – just delighted to be in school and not in the position we were in a year ago. The spirit and power of being together as a school community are never to be underestimated.