Headteacher's update 20.06.25

Fortnightly Newsletter

Firstly, can I thank you all for your continued support regarding uniform, mobile phones, punctuality to lessons and no movement around the school.  We have had a number of external visits recently and everyone has mentioned how polite and courteous our pupils are and how calm and settled the school is. 

We are (finally) at the end of the examination window after a long and tough time for our pupils.  The feedback from invigilators and the examination team is that all pupils have approached the exams professionally and with a real commitment to succeed.  We now wish everyone every success with their results and next steps.  We look forward to welcoming pupils back to our 6^th form to continue their studies.

This year has seen us invest significantly into wider learning experiences.  We have recently restarted fishing and have started a nail bar activity running alongside our other support programmes.  These are proving hugely popular and engaging.  The Year 11 boys have also built an electric racing car during their lunchtimes and have been busy test driving it and creating a race track.  We look forward to having a time trial event during sports day this year where pupils can test their driving skills.

We have also been working closely with our cluster schools to make sure Year 6 pupils’ transition to our school successfully, we have had numerous visits from Year 6 classes and our Head of Year 7, Mr James has been visiting schools to get to know the pupils. 

The annual Year 11 leavers ceremony took place this week and although it was very warm, it was great to celebrate the achievements of a fantastic year group.  To finish off the celebrations, tonight is the glitz and glamour of prom night.

This week was also the Alder Summer Fayre. It was amazing to see so many parents attend to spend some time with us and the pupils enjoying some fun activities run by the amazing team of staff and celebrating the work the pupils have been completing this year.

The rest of this term is also looking busy, we have our Culture Fest event on 3^rd July and Sports Day on the 15^th July.  These important events provide wider learning and experiences that take significant extra time and effort from our staff to make sure they happen successfully.

As a reminder, our next INSET day is on Friday 27^th June where we will be closed to all pupils.

The INSET days for next year are as follows:

Culture Fest   Our Cultural Festival returns this summer.  This is always an excellent event for the school.	Sports Day   Our annual Sports Day is being held on July 15th where we are looking to extend the style of the day to involve the full school community.  We are looking to have all of Year 7 to Year 10 as part of the event for the full day with a wider array of potential activities, both sporting and non-sporting and competitive and non-competitive and including our Alder and ASD base pupils.