The English department has recently run a number of trips to both the Bristol Hippodrome and the Cheltenham Literature Festival. These trips are an essential part of our enrichment offer and are valued by students and their families.

A group of Year 11 students went to Bristol on the evening of Wednesday 9th October to watch a production of ‘An Inspector Calls’. Feedback from students and staff suggests that the evening was both enjoyable and useful, and I was unsurprised to be told that the conduct of our students far surpassed that of many others in the theatre.

There have also been our annual trips to the Cheltenham Literature Festival, with more than 70 students benefiting from the close relationship we retain with the festival. This included students performing at the weekend as part of the Words that Burn project. The students: Oli H, Syd M, Will R, Sean D, Jenson H and Sophia S performed superbly, being the only school group to perform with no notes. Ms Derbyshire and Mr Holliday were both incredibly impressed with their work.

These visits cannot happen without lots of help and support from numerous colleagues, so a huge thank you to all concerned.