I would like to say well done and thank you to the students, parents/carers and all of our staff for their work and support this term. I had the pleasure of attending the Celebration assemblies this week. We rewarded students for their behaviour, engagement, progress, attitude and attendance throughout this term. I was extremely proud to award over 190 Headteachers awards to students nominated by staff for their outstanding contributions to lessons.
The seasonal festivities certainly began! We had our delicious Christmas lunch on Wednesday from Chartwells – thank you to the catering team for all of their hard work and Mrs Day for help with preparation. Myself, Miss Bracegirdle and Miss Keogh helped serve many many meals and students were full of praise for the tasty feast.
After we’d all eaten our lunch, the staff performed a pantomime of their own. Three performances were held so that every student had a chance to watch. It was fun for the cast to take part and the students enjoyed seeing Carisbrooke staff out of their every day roles!
On Thursday evening we held a Christmas Concert at St John’s Church in Newport. Thank you to all the students and staff who performed and organised such a big event. It was an excellent evening and I was so proud to be head of Carisbrooke.
And then to celebrate the end of term, we had our Santa Dash. 140 staff and students took part in the run from school to the Castle and back and then enjoyed delicious, creamy hot chocolate on their return. Huge thanks to Mrs Peake for organising it and to the staff that ran with the children. Thank you to Mrs Mursell, Mr Lythgoe and Miss Leigh for running with the students and Mrs Smith, Heads of Years and Mrs Day for helping with the arrangements. Also thanks to Miss Peckham for the live music whilst students enjoyed their hot chocolate. We raised in excess of £695 and this will be going to The Wight Brainy Bunch, a small charity that provides a support network and financial assistance to local families affected by Brain Tumours.
I was immensely proud of the contributions made to the IOW Food Bank. The Festive jumpers and Mufti were excellent.
Whilst all of these events were taking place, lessons remained as normal and students were well behaved and worked very hard.
All the staff at Carisbrooke are extremely proud of all our young people and we wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year and we look forward to seeing all our students back in school on Tuesday 3 January, ready for a new term, in full uniform and with a positive attitude to learning.