We are now at the end of our first half term and I would like to say a big thank you for all your support over the last 7 weeks. I have thoroughly enjoyed taking on the role of Head of School and I am very impressed with the young people within our community; the eagerness to learn, the respect, the politeness and the ambition I see on a daily basis is a pleasure to be a part of. 

We have had our final Hot Chocolate Friday of the half term, so well done to Samson, Imogen, Nicholas,  Ellenie, Jake, Erin, Freddie, Ruby, Aiden and Logan. We also continue to have many sporting fixtures occur alongside an excellent variety of clubs that students can be a part of. In terms of extra curricular, some of our students are currently in Vietnam and from the reports we are receiving are having an absolutely amazing and enriching experience. 

Many thanks to parents who are supporting keeping students safe at the beginning and end of the day by parking sensibly. Can I just take this opportunity to remind parents that we only have a staff presence outside the main car park in front of the school. It is therefore important that students cross roads safely, using road crossings that are available and conduct themselves in an orderly manner back home.

After half term we will quite quickly have mock exams for Year 11 students, so please ensure they are using some of their half term holiday to revise and access any revision sessions that they may find useful. These have been shared on arbor and will be on social media for you to access. 

Finally, can I wish you all a safe two weeks and I look forward to welcoming students back to school on Monday 6 November.

Mr Pearce-Jones
Head of School – Medina College 

Today is Friday 13, so I hope today has not brought you any bad luck! We are now approaching our last week of this half term so, with that in mind, it is important students utilise every moment of learning. For our Year 11 students in particular, it is important that they have equipped themselves with everything they need to carry out effective revision over half term, ready for their mock exams in November.

As always, we like to celebrate student success loudly and proudly whether this is in school or outside of it. Many congratulations to Megan M in Year 7 who is now South Regional Floor Champion in Gymnastics and has been invited to train with the Hampshire squad. In terms of school sporting fixtures well done to Year 7 boys who won both games against CTK and Carisbrooke. Well done also to the Year 8 and 10 boys who put up a strong game against CTK and the Bay.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned parking at the beginning and end of the day. Can I please reiterate that there should be no parking on double yellow lines as this stops our buses entering and exiting the bus loop. It also causes a safety hazard for students as they exit the school grounds. We have now contacted the traffic warden to assist with this safety issue.

Our Hot Chocolate Friday winners this week were Carter T, Jaiden D, Alice H, Ralph H, Lacey-May T, Indy M, Jake G, Brooke W, Toby M and Leo H. Well done all of you; it was a pleasure to celebrate your successes and hear your opinions this morning.

Finally, I would like to wish those students who are travelling to Vietnam on Monday morning a very safe journey and an enjoyable trip. This is a Federative trip with Carisbrooke College and The Island VI Form. Please keep an eye on our social media channels for updates from them!

Mr Pearce-Jones

Head of School – Medina College 

This week was World Teachers’ Day and I would like to publicly thank all the staff in our community who work very hard to bring about the best for the students within our care. I would also like to thank you all for your ongoing support as we work as a team to be ambitious for our young people. Without such strong parental support it is difficult to build a strong foundation of aspiration.

We have had another busy week with a Year 11 geography field trip and a careers evening for Year 11 as well, both of which were very successful. We have had lots of sporting fixtures and, although our students may not have experienced the success of winning this week, they have shown exceptional pride in our community and in representing Medina College so well.

It has been a pleasure to host our second Hot Chocolate Friday, well done to Rebecca W, Georgia W, Charlie J, Jack H, Gracie-May C, Zack W, Aston H, Jim W and Ruby H.

Next week we have Year 7 tutor evening on Wednesday 11 October between 4-7pm, we look forward to welcoming our new parents into the community.

On the whole, uniform has been very good, but can we remember that hoodies are not allowed in school, shoes should be black and skirts, if worn, should be knee length please. Well done for so many of our students who get this right on a daily basis, you are excellent ambassadors for our college.

You will have received a letter today about the parent governor vacancy that we are currently looking to fill. Please see our website for more details of this.

I would like to finish off by talking about the language students use. Please could discussions be had about the power of words, “your words carry amazing power. So when you speak make sure you uplift someone and never put them down.” It is never acceptable to put some down because of their race, their sexuality, their gender and their disability to name a few. So many of our students have a clear sense of equality when it comes to this and it is upsetting when a few students don’t recognise the harm that it can cause by highlighting negativity in differences rather than celebrating them.

Thank you again for your ongoing support and have a lovely weekend.

Mr Pearce-Jones
Head of School – Medina College

This week has been a very busy week in school with many events happening. On Tuesday, we had Open Evening for Year 6 with about 180 of our lovely students volunteering to come in and help. The evening was amazingly successful with some very lovely feedback such as “Amazing evening to show the school to its full potential. Hollie enjoyed taking part in the practical things and the students who were demonstrating and guiding her were brilliant. The teachers were informative and also answered all the questions we had. Thank you for a fabulous tour”. We also had an informative and useful careers event on Tuesday for Year 11 and school photographs on Wednesday where students looked very smart.

There have been a lot of sporting fixtures this week with the under 15 girls winning their match against Carisrooke by 9-2, Year 10 boys beating Ryde School 6-4 and the Year 8 boys, although losing, put up a great performance in the Hampshire Cup. Well done to you all!

Outside of school we also have seen success with Isobel W in Year 11 who became the youngest British female to have trekked across the Pyrenees in July, a very impressive achievement.

Please remember we have lots of lunchtime and after school clubs throughout the week, including Dancelive and LGTBQ+ clubs on a Wednesday which have just started. So there are lots of opportunities for students to experience success.

The next Parent Voice meeting will take place in school on Monday 16 October at 6.00 pm. This is for existing parents and new year 7 parents are also invited to attend. If you have any questions with regards to Parent Voice, please email louise.southwell@iwef.org.uk.

As we enter the final three weeks of term and germs start to emerge, can you please encourage your child to carry out good hand hygiene so they don’t miss out on participating in school life.

The final part of celebratory news is that we had our first Hot Chocolate event where 10 students from across all year groups were invited to have hot chocolate and biscuits with myself to either celebrate 100% attendance or top achievement points in the previous week. Well done Michael, Joseph, Latia, Erin, Summer, Cody, Imogen, Ryan, Jenson and Kobe.

Mr Pearce-Jones

Head of School – Medina College 

The weather may be changing, but as a school our commitment to improving students’ life chances stays the same. As you will have seen from my letter this week we are focusing on attendance to school and truancy in school. We firmly believe in the mantra “attend today and achieve tomorrow”.

For the vast majority of students, their attendance is excellent and they do not miss a single lesson; this can be seen in the levels of progress they make in school. Please remember, our aim is always 100%, 95% equates to a maximum of 9 days off of school a year. Remember you can monitor your child’s attendance to school and in school through Arbor.

Next week, we have some exciting events coming up with our open evening for Year 6 starting at 5pm on Tuesday 26. Also on that day, we have an Employable Me event for Year 11 where they can focus on what they may like to do post-16. On Wednesday 27, we have the school photographer in, so please make sure your child’s uniform is looking especially smart.

I would like to congratulate Michael C and Rebecca B in Year 8 for being our school ambassadors this week as they have accompanied me out to primary schools to talk about their experiences at Medina College.

Unfortunately, some of the sporting fixtures had to be cancelled this week because of the weather, but the Year 8 boys did manage a match against Ryde School where Ashton W achieved an impressive goal!

Lastly, we are passionate about working in partnership with parents and carers and we want to do everything possible to secure a strong working relationship. To enable us to do that, can we please ask if you would like to speak to one of our team that you make an appointment. This allows us to quickly and efficiently respond to any matters you may wish to discuss.

Have a lovely last weekend of September.

Mr Pearce-Jones

Head of School – Medina College 

We have now completed our first full week back in school and it is the end of our second week of term. Already, time seems to be flying by! It has been a great relief to have some cooler temperatures to assist our students’ ability to focus in their lessons.

I would like to say thank you for your support in sending students to school in the correct uniform, the vast majority of students are looking exceptionally smart and are excellent ambassadors for our school community.

There has been some excellent learning taking place around school, from baking bread in food technology, experiments in science, trampolining in PE and the Vietnam War in history to name a few. It has been a pleasure to visit classes to see this taking place.

A couple of reminders from myself:

• For the safety of our students, please can parents not park on the double yellow lines outside of school at the end of the day. It makes it very dangerous for students walking home and also getting on and off of buses. None of us want to see a child injured.
• Attendance matters, so please send your child to school whenever possible. Did you know that 1 day off school equals 0.5% of school missed for an academic year. 5 days equals nearly 4% of their education missed.

Lastly some excellent news; at the Child of the Wight Awards 2023, one of our Year 8 students, Lily K was awarded carer of the year. Well done Lily, we are very proud of you!

Mr Pearce-Jones
Head of School – Medina College 

It is with great pleasure that I write this first newsletter as your new Head of School. My name is Mr Pearce-Jones and it has been an absolute pleasure to take over the day to day running of the school from Mr Parr-Burman. As Mr Parr Burman wrote to you before the summer holidays, he has not left the federation but is focusing primarily on his role of Executive Head of all three schools.

As a little bit of background to myself, I am an islander born and bred but for the past four years I have been part of the leadership team of an inner city school in Southampton. Previous to this, I have worked at both Carisbrooke College and Cowes High School (as it was then).

September is always an exciting part of the new academic year because it gives all our community the opportunity to reset and think about two important questions:

1) What type of person do I want to be this year?
2) Where am I hoping to make progress and experience success?

This is the message that I have been delivering in assemblies throughout the week. Sometimes, change can be difficult and a little overwhelming but as the author of Alice in Wonderland wrote, “everything seems impossible until you believe it is possible.”

As a school community, we believe that every child has the ability to shine, either in or out of the classroom, and we are passionate about making sure that we make this possible. So, if there are any barriers to learning that you feel your child is experiencing, please communicate this to us so that we can, where possible, ensure that these barriers are overcome.

It has been lovely to hear already about some of the successes that our students have been achieving over the summer holiday. As a couple of examples we have a Year 11 student, Summer G, who has produced a fabulous piece of art work which took her 56 hours to complete and Jasmine NC in Year 8, who took part in a hard ball cricket match for Cowes Cricket Club playing for the over 11s team and winning all their matches. Also, I would like to give a special shout out to Year 7 who have finished the week with best attendance of the school!

Although the weather has been hot this week, the uniform has been amazing so thank you. Unless you hear otherwise, students will be expected to be back in blazers from Monday.

Finally, as we end our first week, I am sure your child has been talking about some of the amazing learning they have been experiencing. However, if things have not been going well, please reassure them that every day is a new start and a new opportunity to make things better.

I very much look forward to working with you over the coming year and hope you manage to enjoy the sunshine this weekend.

Mr Pearce-Jones

Head of School – Medina College 

I would like to start by celebrating our students at Medina College. We held our annual Awards Evening yesterday, which was a fantastic event showcasing a small proportion of the breadth of talent and skills, as well as demonstrations of dedication and perseverance that we have at Medina. Well done to all of our Award winners, who were nominated by their teachers, also thank you to the parents/carers for attending and to the staff for taking part in the evening. I was very proud to be Executive Headteacher and Head of Medina College.

Our PE team held a very successful Sports Day this week. It is great to see the students enjoy activities outside of the classroom. Thank you to all who were involved in this.

I will be writing to you next week with information for September and reminders about expectations, so please look out for this.

We have various trips next week and also a dedicated STEM day on Thursday, when students will be taken off of timetable to take part in an array of alternative activities. We hope they all enjoy what has been planned.

Have a great weekend.

We welcomed our new Year 6 into 7 students on Tuesday. It was a really successful day, full of activities, followed by an extremely well attended Transition Evening with their parents/carers. Thank you to everyone who attended. We look forward to you being part of our Medina College community in September.

Year 10 completed their trial exams at the start of this week. It was an important process which has started to prepare them for their exams next summer. Their results will be shared with them in lessons. There will be another trial set of exams in Year 11 to further prepare/support them.

Our Year 11 students celebrated at a wonderful Prom yesterday evening at Albert Cottage. This is an important event in their school life so we hope that they all thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to Mrs Keenan-Croad and Mr Tennant for arranging this for them.

Next week we have a variety of activities and events planned, please keep an eye on our social media platforms for reports and photos.

It has been the turn of our Year 10 students to experience trial exams under exam conditions this week. We have made the expectations the same as they will be required to adhere to next summer. This is an important part of their exam preparation as it takes away the fear of the unknown and means by the time their real exams arrive, the logistics, routines and requirements will be embedded and therefore their concentration can be completely focused  on their subject knowledge and revision. 

Next Tuesday, 4 July we are hosting our new Year 6 into 7 students, and giving them the opportunity to  experience ‘a day in the life of a secondary school student’. We are very much looking forward to welcoming them.

You will have received a letter regarding next Wednesday and Friday, as they are the next two days of industrial action by the NEU. Please ensure that you read the letter, a copy can be found here. 

We have many events over the next few weeks, so please keep any eye on our website and social media platforms.

I hope you have a good weekend.