Headteacher's Message
Following International Women’s Day on Sunday, we have really enjoyed celebrating inspirational women throughout school and encouraging our own students to have confidence in their own voices.
On Tuesday, we welcomed playwright, Ava Pickett, into school to talk to students. Her work celebrates female friendship and it was fascinating to hear her talk about her award-winning play 1536 and her collaboration with Baz Luhrman on a film about Joan of Arc.
It was a privilege to support Judith and Jessica in Year 10 competing in the regional Speak Out competition. Their fantastic speeches, alongside those of their peers across Richmond, were reassurance that the future is in good hands.
We have a number of students standing in the Richmond Youth Council Elections. Please encourage your child to vote, this is a great opportunity for our students to influence decision making. The Youth Council lead a number of initiatives across Richmond and Kingston, regularly speaking to Headteachers and Councillors, to influence the decision makers who can make a difference to the young people in our community.
We have ended this week by hosting the Richmond Music Trust Choral Festival, a wonderful showcase of music from school choirs from across the borough. Seven choirs from Orleans Park, Grey Court, Christ’s School, Richmond Upon Thames School, Twickenham Academy and Turing House joined Waldegrave to perform their own pieces as well as a joint piece. It was thrilling to see and I am sure everyone left feeling uplifted ahead of their weekend.
Mobile Phone Policy
Earlier in the week I wrote to Year 7 and 8 parents regarding an important update to our mobile phone policy. We know technology can play a positive and important role in young people’s lives helping them travel independently, learn, connect, and create. However it can also bring challenges such as reduced concentration, increased social pressure, and exposure to harmful or misleading online content. As such we are taking a proactive step to address the misuse of mobile devices inside school by launching a tool to limit phone use during the school day.
We will begin the rollout of a mobile phone app, Blackout, following the Easter break. This app, specifically designed for education settings aims to support our curriculum and help educate students about the health digital habits. The rollout will start with Year 8, shortly followed by Year 7 students. In the summer term we will communicate the next steps for students in Years 9 and 10, following a review of the rollout with students in Years 7 and 8.
You can learn more about the app here. In addition, the Blackout Team is hosting a webinar on Tuesday 24 March at 5:30pm to answer questions from parents and carers. It will explain the initiative in more detail, answer any questions and provide a short demonstration of how the app works. To register your interest in attending this webinar please fill out our google form. A recording will be made available after the event for those unable to attend.
This term in Science Year 8 have been learning about the digestive system and enzymes in science and we have been making models of the large molecules involved in digestion. We then as a class divided up into blood vessels, enzymes and molecules working together to absorb all the molecules from the intestines into the blood. The students all had good fun acting out the process as you can see here!
I want to say a huge well done to our wonderful Year 9 Bakers. The Bake Off was a huge success and everyone that took part deserves to be celebrated! Matilda N, Anupriya G and Arin Y took the top spot for 9SHU with their wonderful apple pie and cinnamon cupcakes, with a very tasty apple filling. Special commendation to Eva E, Mathilda G and Lola M for bringing second place home to 9EDA with their Italian-dessert-inspired tiramisu cupcakes, each topped with a biscuit and also to Amber H, Tilda T and Ruby S in 9STR for taking the third spot with some decadent chocolate and raspberry cupcakes.
Congratulations to Jiya K – 10EMU, Judith K – 10FDO, Tamira R – 10SSR, Daisy J – 10SAN who are our 2026 nominees for the Youth Council. It was fantastic to see so many young people putting themselves forward or being recognised by their peers for their leadership, responsibility and commitment to representing the student voice. Taking part in the nomination process demonstrates confidence, initiative and a willingness to contribute to the wider school community, and we are incredibly proud of everyone who was involved.
This week in tutor time, we celebrated International Women’s Day. Students watched a short film about Lipa, a young muslim woman who had to overcome many obstacles in order to become a semi-pro football player. Hopefully Year 11 found this to be inspirational!
Next week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week and the focus is on celebrating different minds.
Last Friday we hosted a Year 7 Richmond Schools Sports Partnership Basketball Tournament at Waldegrave playing against seven other schools across the Borough. The team did fantastically well and were unbeaten in the tournament, coming out as champions! Well done to the entire team as well as to our top scorer Ava F and the coaches players of the tournament: Sophia W and Tabby T.
