Weekly Parent BulletinWeek of 12 May (Week B)

Dear Parents and Carers, 

It feels like students and staff crammed in five days worth of work into four working days!

GCSE exams are now underway, with GCSE Drama and GCSE Business students having sat their papers on Thursday and Friday respectively. Students have been in good spirits and say they felt very prepared and ready for the demands of answering the challenging questions. We wish all GCSE and A Level students the very best of luck for all of next week's exams. 

It is Mental Health Awareness Week next week and students will be talking about how to support their own well being and that of others. Mental health is more than just a small part of our lives. It is connected to every little thing we do, every place we go and every person around us. Mental health is our physical health, our finances, our relationships. It’s part of our defining moments and the day to day. Please always contact school if you have any concerns about your child.

I hope you enjoy reading this week's notices and you find them informative. 

Yours faithfully, 

Dr J Simpson

• Thu 8 May - Formal GCSE and A-Level Exams begin
• Wed 14 May - GCSE Drama Year 10 War Horse Theatre visit (1-4:30pm)
• Tue 20 - Thu 22May - Year 10 Work Experience 

Here's an exciting opportunity for students who are interested in basketball and / or are taking GCSE / BTEC PE studies and are looking for extra curricular activities and team sports.

Having successfully set up a men's basketball team and secured promotion this season, Nottingham Athletic Basketball are setting up a new national u14, u16 and u18 team next season. See the web link below for more details!

• Thank you for your hard work in finding placements for your young people - there are a wide variety of fantastic placements.
• A reminder that students will be on placement Tuesday 20, Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 May.
• Please encourage your child to get in touch with their placement to find out timings, what to wear and lunch arrangements.
• A gentle reminder also that all year 10s need to be in school on the Monday 19th and Friday 23rd May.

Mrs Barrett

Congratulations to the Y9 Rounders Team who became bronze medalists in the City Schools’ Tournament, after qualifying for the finals!

Miss Singleton

• Congratulations to the Y7 Netball Team who played in their first Netball Central Venue League, at Fernwood School. They won their first ever game representing the school but narrowly missed out on progression to the finals.
• They were very excited on both legs of the fixture and were the epitome of good sportsmanship; shaking hands at the end of the game, cheering for the opposition and umpires and thanking the school for hosting.

Miss Singleton

A big congratulations to Sam in Year 10 who gained a bronze medal and a book prize in the 2025 Hamilton Mathematical Olympiad.  This is a follow on round to the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge competition.  A fantastic result, Sam was in the top 100 of the competition for his year. 

Miss Wignall

CONGRATULATIONS to Year 9 who, for the second week running, are top of the school for achieving the most positive points.  

Nottinghamshire Police and the East Midlands Special Operation Unit are hosting a free Webinar for parents, carers, and school staff to support anyone living or working with children or teenagers to support the learning of how to protect yourself and your child’s online security, privacy, and parental controls.

Cyber Security is the protection of devices, online account data and software to protect them from unauthorised access and cyber-attacks.  The links below will take you through to the free webinars:

• Cyber Security Training for parents, carers and school staff - Tues 24th June 2025 (10:00-11:30)
• Cyber Security Training for parents, carers and school staff - Thursday 17th July 2025 (19:00-20:30)
• Cyber Security Training for parents, carers and school staff - Thurs 11th September 2025 (17:00-18:30)
• Cyber Security Training for parents, carers and school staff - Weds 12th November 2025 (13:00-14:30)

Roblox, the popular minecraft 'style' game has announced a new raft of parental controls. The website which ranks among the most popular games for children in the e-space, has previously been accused of possessing weak child protection tools. Their new raft of adaptations is important due to the game's position among school aged children. The new features have been adopted to allow parents to take control of their children's game time in a more comprehensive manner.

Parents will now be able to block individuals who communicate with their children, as well as have more detailed oversight over their usage of the programme. Real-time awareness measures have been increased and these changes represent a big step forward in making popular multiplayer games more secure for underaged users. If interested, the South-West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) has produced a comprehensive run down of these changes. Please follow the link below for more: 

https://swgfl.org.uk/magazine/roblox-launches-new-parental-controls/

• Congratulations to year 7 who have had the best attendance this week with over 96% of the year group attending everyday this week.  There has been a drop in the other year groups with only 95% of the year groups attending everyday. 
• A huge focus for the next 2 weeks on attending everyday! 
• The tutors sets with the best attendance this week are:
  • 7C - Every student attended every day!
  • 8C - 99% attended every day!
  • 9H - Every student attended every day!
  • 10H - 98% attended every day!
  • 11P - 97% attended every day!