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Dear Parents and Carers,

I wanted to begin this week by sharing one of my favourite quotes from Mother Theresa.

‘None of us, ever do great things. But we can all do small things,

with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.’

This week in school I have seen a range of wonderful things that have been achieved through the team efforts of both pupils and staff.

It was an absolute joy to watch the Interform PE competitions organised by Mrs M. Smith, the PE team, and our fantastic Year 10 Sports Leaders. There was a real buzz of excitement and a fabulous atmosphere in the Sports Hall every night this week. Further team success was shared at the indoor athletics competition where both our year 7 and 8 girls’ teams made it through to the finals. A big thank you to our Sports Leaders for their direction and support.

This week a group of our year 11s took part in an online seminar on apprenticeship opportunities at BMW. They explored BMW’s apprenticeship programme and gained top tips on making successful applications. This is the time of year when we encourage Year 11 pupils to think about their next steps and ensure that they have made Post 16 applications to sixth form or college. A reminder that the deadline to apply to our sixth form is 31^st January - we are delighted by the large numbers of pupils who have already submitted their applications. This week Simon Mitchell from ‘Aim Higher Birmingham’ also gave a powerful assembly on motivation and good study habits. Key messages, which are pertinent to all year groups, were:

• Get focused and plan ahead!
• Set a goal for each revision session
• Start early so that you do not feel stressed and rushed  
• Establish what you need to know for each topic
• Choose a quiet place to revise
•  Put your phone away
•  Think positively and stick with it.

The importance of retrieval practice and memory is one of the reasons that we are proud of our commitment to ‘retrieval practice’ from Year 7-13 and our daily focus on ‘retrieval’ activities in all lessons.

I have included a link to a fabulous resource that ‘Aim Higher’ has put together as it gives a great overview of pupils’ different pathways after Year 11. I want to encourage pupils in all year groups to explore this resource as it is extremely helpful and well explained.

https://nextsteps.aimhigherwm.ac.uk/

Let’s continue to work together as a school community and keep our standards high. We are grateful for your continued support with driving home the importance of attendance and punctuality: a reminder that all pupils need to be on the playground for morning line-up by 8:45am to ensure we have a purposeful start to each day.

Lord, we ask that you guide our team’s efforts. We pray for a spirt of collaboration in our school community, where each member’s strengths can create a unified whole. Help us to work together and to continue to learn from each other so that we may achieve our goals in a spirit of unity and shared purpose.

Amen.

Mrs Quoroll

Vice Principal