Thank you for your support in ensuring we had an excellent return to school on Tuesday.Punctuality at school has been great, uniforms look excellent and children are as positive and lovely as ever. Your support is very much appreciated.

Year 11 have made an excellent start to their last term at Orchard Park, with fantastic attendance at our Easter School. Our expert (and generous) staff ran a multitude of revision sessions and supervised silent study areas. Over a third of the year group attended every revision session, every day: an outstanding commitment. A special mention to our GCSE History students who had record attendance at the revision session with Mr Evans on 'achieving a grade 9 in Paper 1’. Thank you to all the staff who gave up some of their holiday to plan and deliver this provision.

Year 11 jumped straight back into exam preparation this week with an English Language Walking Talking Mock in the Hall on Tuesday and an intensive Geography drop down on Thursday and Friday. As we enter the external exam window, I want to thank families and staff for supporting our Year 11s so well: it is the most important time in the school year, and we are very fortunate to be so collaborative in the way we help students succeed.

For Fun Friday this week, we celebrated Earth Day with a themed lunchtime event in the Theatre. Students worked together in the theatre to name as many countries in the world as possible, with Mr Vasey keeping count of every character point awarded for each country named. The collaboration was fantastic, with an impressive 130 countries identified. Students also received Earth Day stickers (pictured) to promote awareness of environmental responsibility across the school. 

Host Ms Coupland led students through an intense Sporcle. Congratulations to all who participated, testing their knowledge and earning Character points.

A very warm welcome, to Mr March, our new Assistant Headteacher for Inclusion and our SENDCo (and Computing Teacher). He will be writing to parents shortly to introduce himself further. We will be practising our lockdown drill in the next fortnight. This is compulsory for schools, just like fire alarm drills. Students with SEND will have an enhanced pre training session with our TA team so that they know what to expect.

Reminders

● Our Year 11 parents’ evening will be held on Thursday 23rd April.

● There will be a Year 9 options fair on Thursday 30 April at 4.00pm.

Ms C Moran, Headteacher