The day began with a warm welcome from student ambassadors who shared their insights into studying and living at one of the world's top universities. Our students received a tour of the campus, visited student accommodation and the magnificent library and then had lunch in the grand dining hall (akin to a Harry Potter movie!). The visit ended with two taster lectures on Linguistics and Engineering and Ethics.

On Wednesday, a group of Year 8, 9, and 10 students traded their traditional classrooms for a high-tech deep dive into the world of artificial intelligence. Hosted at the Creative Digital Lab in Croydon, this workshop was a collaborative effort with Credera to equip our students with essential 21st-century skills. Thank you to Mr Alabi and Mr Obodai for accompanying them on this trip.

We are incredibly proud of the 85 mathematicians from Year 7 and 8 who recently took on the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge. Leading up to the test, they completed practice challenges for homework and a mock challenge in class to prepare. Several students showed exceptional drive by attending specialist webinars hosted by Parallel Academy to further refine their problem-solving techniques. Thank you to Ms Devane and Ms Hyde for their support.

On Thursday evening, we hosted the Year 9 Options Fair. This was a chance for our Year 9 students to learn more about the subject choices that are available to them at Key Stage 4. A reminder that the Google form is accessible via Google Classroom and needs to be submitted by Friday 15th May.

Well done to our two dance groups who performed on Thursday evening at the Royal Academy of Dance’s Step Around Town event. Every student was a credit to the school. A strong sense of team spirit was on display, especially in the way our students supported performers from other schools. Thank you to all those who came to support, especially our Year 11 students who came straight from school to cheer the teams on.

We rewarded a group of Year 11 students with a trip to Nando’s for securing 100% attendance and punctuality, excellent behaviour in school and out in the community, attending multiple additional revision opportunities and earning an impressive number of Character points! Well done to Charis, Emyphil, Ademoroti,Fatmata, Niamh, Molly, Kemari, Dasko, Cayenne and Zahmari.

Finally, huge congratulations to Cooper in Year 7. Cooper represented England in the National Ice Hockey tournament in Finland. They were undefeated for the tournament with some real hard-fought battles throughout against some strong Finnish opponents.

Ms C Moran, Headteacher