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