The last week of term is complete. After last week’s beautiful weather, there was a real chill in the air as we felt what are hopefully the last signs of winter.

In school lots has been taking place. Our English department took two teams to compete in the Gloucestershire Poetry Slam at The Playhouse in Cheltenham. The teams were one of the youngest, if not the youngest teams there, but they completely held their own. The students were word-perfect, performed with confidence and did not let any nerves get to them. 'The Synonym Rolls' performed their poem on the pressures of growing up beautifully, and despite not placing in the top 3, two Heads of English from other schools commented on how they thought their words were the most powerful. Our record for consistently walking away from the poetry slam with a trophy continued thanks to 'The Bracket Bros'. The group performed their poem on the importance of sport with enthusiasm and wit. The boys had to wait until the very end to perform, but completely smashed it to earn third place. Ms Kirk summed the evening up by saying: “I could not be prouder of how our students conducted themselves on the evening, not only with their performance, but how they interacted with the other schools, the judges and the staff at The Playhouse. They really were a credit to the school”. Well done to: Havanna- Lee O, Saffie M, Sara R and Maja K of the Synonym Rolls and to Charlie T, Jeremiah Y, Edward M of the Bracket Bros.  

Our SV Flow Table Cricket team recently travelled to Edgbaston, Birmingham, to compete in the Regional Table Cricket Championships. The journey up was great, the sun was shining, and confidence was high. That confidence was not misplaced as the team were outstanding. They won all their pool games, led brilliantly by Archie, with some excellent batting from the whole team. They then went on to win the final and were presented with the Regional Champions trophy! Mr Rogers said afterwards, “I am incredibly proud of our students. For some, this was their third attempt after competing at district level for the past two years, so it really was third time lucky! A special mention must go to Ranell, who played brilliantly in every single game”. The team now head to Lord’s in London for the National Finals on Friday 15 May. It will be a fantastic experience for everyone involved!

Last Friday saw another epic sporting encounter, our annual Staff versus Year 11 Football match. The sun was shining, and conditions were perfect for this eagerly anticipated match. There was a great crowd in attendance raising money for the British Heart Foundation. The game, as ever, was played in in a fabulous spirit. The staff dominated from the off and were able to earn their very first victory, 4 – 1. There are very few schools who have staff v student games and that we can, and for it to be played in such a great spirit, is something of which I am hugely proud. Thanks to all who took part, and to those who attended and helped create such a great atmosphere.

Our biggest ever DofE Bronze cohort and a group of Silver participants braved the cold nights to complete their practice expeditions last weekend. Thankfully, the weather during the day was amazing. The Bronze groups walked about 11km a day with the Silver group averaging about 15km. All the groups worked extremely well as a team to navigate the route, support each other, set up camp and cook in a timely manner with very few problems.  Ocean Rock instructors commented on how much they like working with us as a school due to the lovely character of our students. We are looking forward to the qualifying expedition in May, where hopefully we will have a repeat of how well our students did this weekend. This will mean that many of our students will complete their Bronze and Silver awards.  

Two weeks ago, the music department took a group of 34 KS3 students to The Music Works to complete a recording of ‘On Top of the World’ by Imagine Dragons. A copy of their recording has been uploaded to You Tube and can be accessed by clicking here. Enjoy!

As always, I end with 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 hope you enjoy a fabulous Easter. We look forward to seeing the students again on Monday 13 April. This will be a Week B.

Regards

Richard Johnson 
Headteacher