Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends
Happy New Year!
We welcomed back our students on Monday. Year 11 have gone straight into sitting their PPEs – good luck! I hope that revision over the break will have helped them feel calm for the exams as well as prepared them for the summer exams – by shifting much of the knowledge into their long-term memory. Students will learn a lot through the PPEs; how to manage their time in exams, the effectiveness of their revision methods and whether to even get involved in the chat after an exam! It is important for students to take on board all the feedback from teachers so they can continue with or adapt their revision strategies, refine their exam technique and feel reassured that things will be good in the summer. There is time to step up their studying if they need to but for most I hope they feel satisfied that they have managed a good balance of studying, relaxation and keeping up with other activities. This is the ideal situation – to have a good mix!
The motto on our school badge is Honor Quam Honores……..it means, honour rather than honours; so it is about being noble, keeping to our word, doing what is right…….over and above wanting recognition and reward…….this is in short integrity.
Mrs Pearce and I are delivering assemblies this week on integrity, explaining how it is linked to our three school character traits of stoicism, gratitude and humility each term. In the assemblies we explain that integrity means doing the right thing, even when no one is looking and then shared examples of how our students can show integrity day to day. For example, by keeping to their commitments but also having the self-confidence to say no to commitments if they know they cannot keep them. We reminded them that it is better to decline an invitation at the start, rather than agree and then having to pull out. We explained that being a good communicator (telling people what you are doing/how you feel), working hard and not cutting corners at someone else’s expense all helps lead a life with greater integrity. Linking to the character trait of humility, we reminded students that it is ok to make mistakes and that we should show integrity by admitting to the mistakes and not blame others. Our students are very gracious and so we explain that it is good that they acknowledge when someone has helped them rather than take all the credit for an achievement themselves. We end our assemblies by reminding our students that strong relationships between family member, friends and teachers is based on trust and trust starts with integrity..
Have good week!
Anne Kennedy
Co-Headteacher