Dear Parent/Carer,
It has been a very busy spring term at St Mary's with lots of activity taking place both in and out of the classroom.
Over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of February, the cast and crew put on three performances of 'Back to the Eighties' showcasing just how much talent we have at our school. The production was full of great songs and acting and the music was provided by our pupil band. I really enjoyed seeing just how such fun the cast had, and think it is so important that we provide them with such opportunities. I look forward to finding out what we'll be doing next and to the casting and rehearsals staring again!
We have also taken our pupils to ‘Young Voices’ in Birmingham and to a ‘Wicked’ workshop designed to support their mental and physical wellbeing.
At the end of the recent half-term break, our annual ski trip returned safely after a week of great skiing. The staff and pupils had a brilliant time on the slopes as the daily updates on our website show.
As you will see within this newsletter, we have also enjoyed a significant amount of sporting success and amongst a number of notable performances, our U15 Hockey team were crowned county champions after going undefeated in the recent tournament. We have a comprehensive extra-curricular sporting offer at the moment with various fixtures and practices on most nights of the week. If your son or daughter is not currently involved and would like to be, they can speak to any member of the PE Department for more information.
Since returning after Christmas, our Y11s have been focused on addressing the gaps that the mock exams highlighted in December. If your child is in Y11, please see our revision support timetable and details on the website. There are lots of sessions to choose from, some of which are targeted at certain tiers, topics or groups, and I would urge Y11 to make best use of them in the run up to the GCSEs. May I remind you that we also offer a mini-bus drop off in town after the revision sessions for those pupils who are unable to be collected. The next few weeks will pass very quickly and we will be encouraging Y11 to access as much support as they can – there are also Easter revision sessions being delivered by some departments, more details to follow.
We continue to monitor the quality of provision across the school very closely with Department Reviews in Music, Business Studies, RE, MFL, History, Computer Science, Geography, Maths and PE to date.
It has been really good seeing you at our recent parents’ evenings and I hope you have found them to be both helpful and informative. We also had our Options Evening recently and we will continue to do all that we can to support our Y9’s in making the right choices for them with their forthcoming GCSE subjects. We appreciate that these are big decisions and in addition to interviews and assemblies, we have had a range of employers into school to talk to the year group.
On the first Friday of every month we have voluntary mass in the chapel. Father Augustine from Belmont Abbey came to celebrate on St David’s day, and it was wonderful to see the chapel full with pupils from across the year groups.
May I take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Easter and a restful break. Thank you for your ongoing support.
Best wishes
Stuart Wetson
Headteacher
