Welcome to my update for this week.

Some of our Year 7 students have had the opportunity to take part in our ‘Literacy week’ activity. They have been learning about Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ in an immersive, innovative and interactive way. Activities have included trips to the beach and local woodlands. They have created artwork, musical responses and physical performances based on The Tempest whilst also gaining an appreciation of the text. The project has encouraged the students to enjoy a text that they may have otherwise found daunting.

As mentioned last week, I will be covering aspects of our Vision and Values in future updates.

‘ASPIRE and Achieve’ is integral to us as a school and a Federation. As our vision explains, ‘We are a learning community which embraces opportunities for our learners by securing high quality learning and teaching. We aim for our students to achieve their potential both as students at our schools and as global citizens’

Ambition is the first aspect of ASPIRE and this explores that ‘we are ambitious for ourselves and our futures’. Having ambition is so important. This can involve short, medium and long term goals, but the key is to always have something that you would like to achieve or experience. When you achieve one of your short term ambitions, keep working hard towards achieving your longer term ones. We can all have knock backs or challenges along the way, but determination and self belief will create resilience, which will mean ambitions do not need to change, they just need to be worked for

Next week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday our Year 7 students will be sitting CATs (Cognitive Abilities Tests). This involves three tests over the three days. There is nothing to worry about. No revision or prior learning is required. They are tests that help us to understand learning styles and highlight potential difficulties that students may be facing.

Year 7 parents will shortly be receiving an invite to Year 7 Tutor Evening. This will give parents’/carers the opportunity to discuss how their child is settling into secondary school life.

Our extra curricular activities for all year groups have been shared on our social media platforms this week, so please do follow us on one of these to keep up to date with all of the wonderful opportunities we have on offer.

Please see my separate update in relation to the IWEF/HISP consultation that ran prior to the summer break.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Thank you for your support and understanding during the first two weeks, where our newsletter needed to reflect the period of National Mourning. 

I am pleased to welcome you properly to this academic year.

This week we had the pleasure of inviting Year 6 students and their parents/carers to our Open Evening. It was a fantastic event which was very well attended. Our visitors had the opportunity to hear about our Medina learning community, experience first hand some learning activities and also speak to our amazing students about their experience of our school. I was delighted to welcome everyone who attended and felt extremely proud of all of the students and staff for the opportunities and information they provided. Applications need to be made by 31 October to provide the best chance of having a place with us in September. If anyone was unable to attend, please contact reception to arrange an alternative opportunity.

We have a plethora of extra-curricular activities available this year. A timetable is being put together and will be available for all to see via our social media and website. If you do not already follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, please do, as there are regular updates and good news stories shared in this way. Information will also be shared about Google Classroom and our parent portal over the coming weeks. 

During the first couple of days, I delivered assemblies welcoming the students back and revisiting our expectations. As a reminder, we do expect students to be on time at the start of the day and in full school uniform. Students need to use their break times appropriately and make sure they do not need to leave the classroom during lessons. They also need to remain focussed, have good manners and behave appropriately by following the rules. We will apply the rules consistently and our expectations will not drop as time goes on.

Next Thursday we will be having our school photos, so it will be especially important that all uniform is spot on. If you do have any concerns about the start of term, please contact your child’s tutor in the first instance.

Next week I will be starting to cover our core ASPIRE values which are Ambition, Success, Progress, Inspiration, Respect and Equality, as these are integral to us as a school and as a Federation. 

Best wishes

Message from Mr Parr-Burman, Executive Headteacher

We would like to start this week by thanking the students and school communities for the respect that they have shown over the past week. We have had Books of Condolence on each of the Federation sites which students and staff have been able to add messages to. Some of the messages have been clearly thought about. 

As communicated this week, we will be observing the National Holiday on Monday for the State Funeral, so as this is considered a Bank Holiday, work will not be set for the students. We will be open as usual on Tuesday 20 September. 

We do have upcoming Open Evenings as Year 6 and Year 11 parents look to the next academic year. These evenings are
Tuesday 20 September 5.00 pm – 8.00 pm – Medina College
Tuesday 27 September 5.00 pm – 8.00 pm – Carisbrooke College
Thursday 3 November 5.00 pm – 8.00 pm – The Island VI Form

We will be returning to our usual newsletters next week, but for this week, we will continue to show our respect to The Royal Family by keeping our update short. 

9 September 2022

Message from Mr Parr-Burman, Executive Headteacher

We start this term with a very different first message.

Following the extremely sad news yesterday evening from Buckingham Palace that Queen Elizabeth II has died, we have now entered a period of national mourning that will continue until the end of the State Funeral. 

It is especially important during this time that we do not speculate about timelines, events and closures. We will, as we have always done, follow officially shared Government guidance and information. Please be assured that as soon as we are able to update you with information, we will. The initial guidance from the Department for Education issued yesterday evening was that schools should remain open.

This is a momentous time for our nation, and in fact many nations around the world. It is very unlikely that a reign of 70 years will happen for many many generations to come. The Royal Family website is being updated with articles and a Book of Condolence if people feel they would like to contribute. This can be found here: www.royal.uk.

We are not going to add lots of other details to the letter this week as it is important that we show the respect that The Queen deserves.

Further school updates and information will be shared directly and via our social media accounts over the coming days.