As part of Anti-Bullying Week we encouraged all pupils to take action against bullying and help them understand how important it is that every child feels valued and included in school, able to be themselves, without the fear of bullying. That it is never acceptable to cause others pain no matter the reasons behind the actions and to speak up as there are no neutrals in situations of injustice.

The highlight last weekend was when I attended the ISA Autumn Study conference and we were delighted to be awarded the ISA National Award for Excellence and Innovation in Language Provision. We were honoured to receive the award from guest speaker Garry Richardson the BBC Sports Presenter which was an added bonus, after listening to his perfectly pitched, entertaining and exceptionally funny after dinner speech. The ISA National Art and Technology results were announced at the conference on Saturday morning and we were delighted to have taken first prize in the Key Stage 3 Film category ‘Why are you so quiet’ by Emily Taylor- West, Jasmine Parr, Charlotte Runcie and Maddie Todd. Congratulations to Holly Catton whose ‘Gas Mask’ drawing was awarded second place in the Key Stage 3 Drawing section.   

There were some excellent sports results this week with our Under 13s winning the ISA London West Netball Championships, you can read more about their tournament triumph in our news.  One of the parents who attended the competition commented to me that he wasn’t quite sure who was more excited by this fantastic achievement the girls or staff. We wish them the best of luck in the next round and keep training! The Under 14s came second in the RBWM netball tournament and in tennis we have just heard our girls finished third in U15 Regional Finals.

I enjoyed meeting Year 10 parents at the Parents Evening on Wednesday and to hear that their GCSE studies have got off to a great start. It also seems to me that parents are providing just the right support and our challenge is to continue to work with you to ensure that our pupils work consistently and independently, but without over focussing on just this aspect of school life.

As ever we have a busy week ahead - on Thursday we are hosting a talk for Year 10 and 11 parents from Rachael Williams our School Counsellor on “Building Resilience in Adolescence”. We are all acutely aware of the rising level of mental health issues in our teenage population and this talk is designed to help parents understand the issues, learn something of the strategies that can be used to help our young people, and how we can work in partnership. I do hope that many of you will be attending - we have held a similar evening for Year 7 parents and it was found to be an extremely thought provoking evening. Paul Hay met with G9 last week to kick off their Internet Safety Projects and we look forward to seeing their plays soon.

Have a lovely weekend and for those who are attending the performance over the weekend I hope it is “Unforgettable”!