Welcome Back

Thursday, 16 September 2010 10:00

‘Good morning Year Eight’

The opening line of our first Year Eight assembly; simple, to the point and yet, never has a line required so much concentration to avoid saying ‘Year Seven’!! It almost seems unbelievable that those students, who so recently were the new arrivals, are now fully embedded within the school and are in turn watching the arrival of a whole new intake of students.

I sincerely hope that your summer holiday have been good, allowing you time to spend together as a family and for students to take a well deserved rest before embarking on this ‘next stage’ of their academic journey. Year 8 will see our students placed under ever increasing challenges as they being to prepare for their various futures.

Form time

In Year Eight, as last year, our students will continue to start the day with ‘Form Time’, during which they will be registered, provided with necessary information and offered time for wellbeing and personal development. In addition to last years programme, this year will see the introduction of a Work Related Learning Morning. The purpose of these sessions will be to prepare the students for life after school and to give the advice and guidance they will need to be able to make informed life choices.

I must stress the importance of Form Time and the importance, therefore, of punctual arrival to school. Please also note that journal signing has been moved to Monday’s and I will be asking the form tutors to check and sign the students Journals each week, in order to facilitate communication, I would be grateful if you, as parents carers and guardians could also sign the journal on a weekly basis. Below is a list of the form time weekly plan.

Mon: Journal signing and equipment checks

Tue: Personal Development (Work related Learning)

Wed: Year 8 Assembly

Thu: Functional Skills / Reading

Fri: Review of the week

Head Start

In Wednesday’s Assembly I explained to the Year group my dashed aspirations to run in the Norwich Half marathon (or more to the point, to beat Mr Sewell-Head of Year 9). Why have they been dashed you ask? Well, because of a Hamstring injury, putting me out of training for 3 months. Why do the Year Eights need to know this you ask? Well, I was explaining to them, that you need to train hard early on, you can’t just wait till the last minute and hoping to cram training in. A story which nicely introduces the Year Eight ‘Head Start Awards. Each week Staff will be asked to nominate any Year Eight Students who are making a Good start to the year and therefore getting off to a head start. Nominees receive a standing ovation and a ‘Head Start’ certificate.

The Nominees for the first week were:

Lucy Kendle
Clair Seeney
Travis Watson
Georgina Hill
Cara Ivers
Katie Walpole
Adam Gaskin
Matt Collier Ball
Josh Beasley
Jack Lin
Charlotte Barnard
Jessica Brooks
Joe Bennett

Well done to each of them!

Extra Curricular Activities

A full and varied programme of extra curricular activities including Arts, Sports and Music clubs has been put together to support students in their learning this year. I am keen to see the Year Eight students getting involved in as many clubs and activities as possible and will be using Assemblies to promote these opportunities. A full list of the opportunities available can be found on the school Website.

Mr Bidle & Mrs Betts