Headteacher's Blog 1-7-22
Meet our new team of student leaders!
It’s been a busy week for our KS3 students with the Order C Tests taking place. It was extremely pleasing to see the mature way the students conducted themselves during these exams and the level of effort and application on display. Our teachers are busily marking the assessments and will be feeding results back to students in class over the next two weeks and to parents via the end of year gradecards.
For our Year 10 students next week is Work Experience week. It has been a real challenge for the students and our staff to arrange work experience this year. With many companies changing their working practices, there are simply not enough opportunities for all of our students to get placements. I am pleased that about 80% of the student have been able to arrange placements. For those without placements lessons will continue as normal and full attendance is required.
We know that in the future it will remain difficult to arrange work experience placements for all of our students. However, we remain committed to providing the opportunity for work experience as we believe that the benefits for students are so profound. For now, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the employers who have kindly offered placements and to wish the students the best.
This week the application process for our new student leaders was completed. Over 30 students completed applications and were interviewed this week by Miss Evans and Mr Spooner. The quality of their interviews was fantastic and the feedback from Miss Evans and Mr Spooner a joy to hear. All of the students interviewed were a credit to themselves and their year group and deserve our praise. There were however, only a limited number of places available and the following 12 students were appointed:
- Rudy Kyffin
- Ruby Wiltshire
- Justin Newton
- Finlay Tanner
- Josh Turk
- Tilly Jones
- Libby Hawkins
- Caitlin Loomes
- Edie Dowdeswell
- Ellie Lines
- Charli Lucas
- Sophie Evans
I know they will do a fantastic job (beginning next week at our Year 6 Parent Induction evening) and I am very much looking forward to working with them all.
This week a group of Year 7 and 8 students had the pleasure of attending a poetry workshop with poets Lewus Buxton and Luke Palmer at the Churchdown School Literature Festival. The students spent time learning how to hone their poetry writing skills and working collaboratively with students from other schools in the area. The students were then invited to return to Churchdown in the evening to perform their poems in front of three poetry judges and their friends and family. Every student performed with confidence and passion. We were extremely pleased and proud that Armani Ferguson won the Year 7 award and Mia Griffiths won the overall poetry prize. These students were chosen out of thousands of entries from pupils across Gloucestershire. The judging panel informed Mia that her poem was of professional standard and that she has an amazing future ahead of her in poetry. Well done to all of the students who took part!
For the first time in 3 years we will be staging our annual summer concert on Wednesday 13th July at 6pm. The theme this year is 'Back to the 90s' and it is sure to be a wonderful evening of performances celebrating our musical talent and progress across years 7-11. There will also be an end-of-year display of thematic contributions from other subject areas to see during the evening and refreshments will be available during the interval. This is a free event with an online ticketing system which can be accessed at via the following link - www.ticketsource.co.uk/svsmusicdepartment. I look forward to seeing you there!
As always, I include 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.
Kind regards
Richard Johnson
Headteacher