We now have just 14 days left of the Spring term, please make a note in your diaries that we break up for the Easter Holidays on Thursday 28th March as the Friday of that week is a bank holiday.

This week I had a meeting with the catering team to discuss the exciting menus they have planned for the summer term. During the meeting, they mentioned that there is a significant number of students who are entitled to free school meals who are not using this entitlement. If your child is eligible for free school meals, they have £2.95 a day to spend in the canteen which is enough to purchase a meal and a drink. If they don’t use this money, it does not accumulate, so please make sure you are taking advantage of this. Take a look at the current menus on our website here; there is a wide variety of hot and cold options every day at break and lunch time.

We are aware there is a very small minority of students who are abusing our toilet facilities. This is clearly an area of the school where we cannot have CCTV footage, so this makes it challenging for us to catch the perpetrators. Can I ask that we all reiterate the importance of respecting the facilities so everyone can use them in a pleasant manner. Looking at the local news and reports from other secondary schools, sadly this disrespect for toilets does not seem to be uncommon at the moment. On the topic of events that are happening outside of school, we are aware that some fake Medina College Tik Tok accounts have been set up. We do our best to investigate these and report them to Tik Tok to be blocked. However, I would like your support with this, so ask that if you come across such an account, can you please also report them so we can shut these down as quickly as possible.

This week we have had some amazing activities taking place such as: activities for National Careers Week, the Maritime Roadshow, World Book Day, Athletic Championships and other sporting fixtures and our Year 7 trial exams where I have had reported back to me that behaviour was amazing. Well done Year 7!

Also this week, we had the Year 9 Pathways Evening. All of the information that was shared can be found on our website here. Please remember that forms need to be returned by Friday 15 March at the latest. 

Finally, I would like to finish off by congratulating our Hot Chocolate Friday winners this week for 100% attendance in the previous week or top achievement points. Well done to: Ruben, Sebby, Billy, Tom, Ethan, Ellie, Molly, David, Lewis and Ferne.

Mr Pearce-Jones
Head of School – Medina College

Welcome to March; it is hard to believe that we are almost a quarter of the way through the year already!

For Year 11, they only have 19 school days of this final full half term unaffected by their real GCSE exams, so it is important that they are ensuring every day counts.

Well done to Year 10 for their conduct in their trial exams this week, very impressive. Good luck to Year 7 for their first taste of exams next Wednesday.

Please remember that Wednesday 6 March is our Year 9 Pathways Evening between 5.00 – 7.00 pm. During this evening, important information will be given about how Year 9 can choose their GCSE options, so please do try to attend. 

Due to a lot of bugs and illnesses going around, attendance has been particularly low this week. It is really important to ensure, where possible, that students attend school because attendance of below 90% can affect a child’s GCSE grade by one whole grade. Guidance as to how to improve attendance can be found here: Attendance Guidance for Parents/Carers. I would also like to draw your attention to the latest new release from the Department of Education here. This explains how from August 2024 they are raising the costs of fines for term time absence. All fines are handled by the local authority who decide whether an absence reaches the threshold for a fine to be issued. 

I have had a few questions about toilets this week, so can I take this opportunity to reassure parents that there are multiple toilets open for students throughout the day. On top of the unisex toilet, we also have four separate toilet blocks for girls and two for boys. The single sex blocks are only closed for cleaning from 1.10 pm for about half an hour. 

Congratulations to all the sports teams this week: well done for playing all the fixtures you have despite the rain.

Finally, well done to our Hot Chocolate Friday winners: Emma, Harry, Ethan, Maddie, Logan, Alfie, Sophie, Ethan, Billy and Harry, who all secured a place either through 100% attendance in the last week or being the top achievement point winners for their year group. 

Have a lovely weekend. 

Mr Pearce-Jones

Head of School – Medina College

I would like to start off by wishing you all a warm welcome back after half term, it has been lovely to have students back in school and completing excellent learning.

This week we had a very busy Year 9 Parents’ Evening on Tuesday and Year 11 have been completing two days of mock exams in English, maths and science. Next week we have Year 10 completing their first set of exams on the GCSE courses they have chosen to study.

Don’t forget that on Wednesday 6 March, 5-7pm we have the Pathway Evening for Year 9, an evening designed to assist them in choosing the right subjects for their GCSE courses.

This week I have been delivering assemblies on ambition and, now we are half way through the academic year, it is important that all students reflect upon their great ambition. What is it they want to achieve? What are the barriers that are getting in the way? How can school help them realise their ambitions? And finally, understanding that along the way we will all fail at things, but the lessons we learn at these points help us improve for the future. I know as a school our ambition for all students is to be the best version of themselves.

I would like to finish off by saying a special congratulations to Sophie for her impressive performance in Phantom of the Opera outside of school. I would also like to say well done to our Hot Chocolate Friday winners who gained a place for either 100% attendance in the last week or were top achievement points winners in their year group. This week we celebrated with Alfie, Dean, Naomi, Lily, Sammy, Rosie, Pip and Scott.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mr Pearce-Jones
Head of School – Medina College