Headteacher's Message
We are now well into January and our new term, with this Monday past, named as ‘Blue Monday’, the day most resolutions have been dropped, the cheer of Christmas seems a distant memory and the gloomy weather isn’t giving us much to look forward to. However, inside school I can report plenty of positive news from sports matches to school trips to brighten up even the gloomiest skies!
Speaking of positive news, our sports teams have been busy this week with some fantastic results – scroll down to the Sports Fixtures section to read more.
On Wednesday our Year 11 GCSE Music students continued to show their passion and talents while recording their ensemble pieces for their exams and we also welcomed another fantastic Working Lunch speaker to school. This week the speaker giving a careers talk was Will Mills, a media and technology entrepreneur who co-invented the technology behind the music naming app, Shazam. He also helped co-create companies that were subsequently sold to Apple and Soundcloud for over $600m. The session was incredibly popular and he told pupils about how he was able to monetise his ideas and shared insights into how to be successful in the creative industries.
Next week’s Working Lunch talk will be with Kalpna Patel Knight, Head of Entertainment Commissioning at the BBC which I am sure will be another very interesting session. Thank you so much to all the speakers who have given their time to come into the school to share their knowledge and experience.
On Thursday our Sixth Formers had exciting trips to the Institut Francais for our French a-level pupils and a photography trip to the National Portrait Gallery. I am sure these interesting trips will support them with their courses over the next year.
I am delighted to announce that the Year 7 Football team are the Richmond Schools Sports Partnership 5-a-side champions after winning all of their pool games last Friday and then going on to beat Grey Court in the final. Well done to all.
The Basketball team won their first league game with an impressive score of 42-2 points. What was even more impressive was the manner in which they performed and took the win, choosing 2 player players for the opposition. Our well deserved winners were Ava F and Isabel M. We look forward to more successes in our next matches.
This week our Year 7/8 basketball team played in a tournament and were named as winners! Our Year 8 team also received their medals for winning the basketball league. Well done to them for their great team work.
This week in Year 9 we welcomed a guest speaker who came in to talk about the effects of air pollution and global warming and also hosted a workshop on how we can make small changes which make big differences – as a part of Our Air, Our Action – Richmond Council’s environmental project. Pupils agreed that how they travel was very important and so we are asking all pupils, teachers and staff to try and switch one journey a week to a sustainable travel journey such as cycling, walking.
Looking further ahead- can I please remind you about Work Experience placements. The deadline for students finding their own placement is February 13th (just before half term). Mrs Croucher is overseeing this and students can speak to her if they are having any issues. If you need some support with this then please contact Mrs Croucher via the KS4@ email address.
Math’s intervention is continuing to run after school on a Thursday and English on a Friday. However, please note that if your child has received an invitation to additional ‘booster’ sessions for English that they do not need to attend the Friday after school English session as well.
Our Year 11 Book Club has just finished reading their play, ‘The Crucible’ and will be moving on to a new play next week – 
Our Sixth Form footballers were also out on Monday playing their final B Pool fixture at home against St Richard Reynolds Catholic College (SRRCC). Our team took an early lead through a goal from Omer O, 12ESA), but SRRCC equalised just before half-time.
This week saw plenty of action for the basketball teams too. On Monday our Year 7 team’s first league game played against Twickenham School at home, with a 42-2 win. The player’s players of the match were Ava F, 7FSM, and Isabel M, 7SRI. Wednesday saw the joint Year 7/8 basketball team take part in a Borough Richmond Schools Sports Partnership tournament, this time on home courts. They played five games, winning all five and scoring 58 points in total (while conceding only 10!).
