Dear Parents/Carers,

I wanted to write to update you on the start we have made to the new academic year at St Mary's.

We have been incredibly impressed by the start Year 7 have made and how quickly they have settled in to lessons, learning and the wider life of the school.

I thoroughly enjoyed their Welcome Mass, meeting some of you, and it was wonderful to see how much preparation they put into the liturgy and their House Shields!

All other year groups have started very well too, and Year 11 in particular have been focused and are busy preparing for what lies ahead.  If you are a parent/carer of a Year 11 pupil, I would like to highlight that some after-school revision sessions have already begun and that Year 11 Study Skills also take place every Wednesday in our main hall.  As we progress towards the mocks in December and thereafter, there will be subject sessions taking place every night after school (full details of which are to follow).  I strongly encourage pupils in Year 11 to make the most of these opportunities as they prepare for their GCSEs.

Rehearsals for 'Back to the 80's' are in full swing and it is so good to see pupils from all year groups getting involved.  If last year's production of 'School of Rock' is anything to go by, then we are in for a treat in February.

We have also been well represented in the West Midlands Swimming Gala with some exceptional performances by our pupils.  All other year groups have had fixtures in a range of sports and it is so encouraging to see such high participation rates.

We have also been busy raising funds for charity and our pupils have held DJ sessions and cake sales for the Morocco earthquake appeal and on Friday we held a non-uniform 'wear bright colours' for Cafod to support their work in helping developing countries dealing with climate crisis.

Our recently installed solar panels are already generating significant power (4000kws) and saving over 800 kg of carbon dioxide emissions in the process.

Thank you for your patience with the issues we experienced following the widening of our driveway.  This has hopefully been fully repaired and rectified and should make access in and out of St Mary's easier.

Last Thursday evening we held our annual Open Evening and I can't emphasise enough how proud I was of our pupils.  We had over 200 volunteers to be tour guides and many more Year 7's and 8's helping in department areas.  The feedback I received from prospective parents was so overwhelmingly positive about how our pupils were helpful, well presented and polite and also how keen they were to showcase St Mary's.

The evening was very busy and subsequent Open Mornings were fully booked, all of which bodes well for applications in 2024.