With a week left of the academic year, our students should reflect on their first year at Samuel Whitbread. The year group have immersed themselves within a wide range of activities and challenged themselves in a range of subjects. They should be proud of their accomplishments, please ask your child about their achievements. On Friday we’re excited to celebrate success and achievement in an assembly that will take place on Friday!

Our students gained valuable experience on their work shadowing day. It was great to speak to some of the students and get their take on the experience, it has been a positive experience. Our students can utilise the skills within lessons or outside of the classroom.

Going into Year 10, our students are able to book a career appointment with careers advisors to support them with future aspirations and post-16 educational options. Please enquire with your child’s tutor to arrange an appointment for the new academic year.

Many of our Year 9 students took part in the amazing Les Misérables production. Some were on stage, some were behind the scenes and others were part of the studio production. Well done to all of the students and staff involved.

We continue to set high expectations during the last and upon our return. We expect positive behaviour around the school and within the community and we expect the uniform to be smart and fall in line with our uniform policy. We believe that both behaviour and uniform contribute to a positive school community and we will continue to have high expectations throughout Year 10. 

Some of you may be aware that from September I will be stepping down from my role as Head of Year and will be moving into a new role within pastoral at Samuel Whitbread. I’ve enjoyed working with the year group and getting to know the student this past academic year and many of them a credit to their parents and carers. I am pleased to announce that Miss Gill will be stepping into the role of Head of Year and will continue her fantastic work with the year group. Mr Rich will also be joining our pastoral team as the Assistant Head of Year 10.  I would like to take the opportunity to wish them both luck in this exciting venture.

I would like to wish all Year 9s a peaceful, enjoyable and restful summer break and look forward to watching their GCSE journeys begin.

This academic year our students have immersed themselves in a wide range of activities, challenged themselves in a range of subjects and stepped outside their comfort zone to try new things. Our students should feel very proud of their accomplishments, please ask your child about their achievements. The year team is excited to celebrate success and achievement in next Friday’s assembly!

Students have received their summer reports and had the opportunity to look at their progress over the year, in relation to achievement and attitude. Many students will see a steady rise throughout the year (which is great), and some may have seen a slight drop. This may be for a number of reasons – does the grade link to the effort? Has your child found the topic in the mock difficult? Have the testing conditions had an impact? All of these reasons have solutions and staff will be working with the students to develop specific strategies to develop these areas. If your child has improved throughout the year, please continue to challenge them during the holidays. Any questions regarding reports, please speak to the class teacher.

A group attended a workshop at the University of Bedfordshire to learn about university life and how they can continue to study Maths post-16 and at University. Some of our students had the opportunity to watch some top-class tennis at Queen’s Club. A large group of students visited Box End Park as a reward for their attitude, behaviour and attendance.

Many of our students gained valuable experience by working with their family for the day. It was great to speak to our students about their experiences, some have secured some voluntary work through the experience, and others have reaffirmed their passion for a specific job! It’s been a positive experience, students can utilise their new skills within lessons or outside of the classroom. The students who were at school for the ‘World of Work’ day learnt about job applications, CVs and self-branding. All of these are vital skills.

A spokesman from The University of Buckinghamshire spoke to a group of students. It was a thought-provoking discussion focussing on post-16 options and the course the University offer. The speaker encouraged the students to complete some research on courses they have on offer.

Many of our students were part of the amazing Les Misérables production, our students were on stage, others were a part of the tech crew and some helped out with the hair and makeup – well done to all of the students and staff involved.

As part of their final grade in food technology, the Year 10s produced a fabulous afternoon tea for their families. Well done to everyone – I know that Mrs Lund and Miss Caves were most impressed. We also have a sports tour heading to South Africa – we really hope the students have the most amazing time. Thank you to all of the staff who have organised these opportunities as they really do go above and beyond.

Although we’ve had a great year and it has been a pleasure to share some of the successes and achievements, we’ll continue to set high expectations upon our return. We expect positive behaviour around the school and community and expect the uniform to be smart and fall in line with our uniform policy. We believe that both behaviour and uniform contribute to a positive school community and we will continue to have high expectations throughout Year 11. 

Unfortunately, we say goodbye to one of our great tutors, Miss Auguste. I know that 10P will miss her dearly and along with the year team, would like to say good luck and thank you.

As you are aware, Mrs Turner will start her role as Head of Year 9 in September. Mrs Turner has worked with a number of students within the year group and I know that they are thankful for all of the time, effort and strategies that she has put in place for them. Mrs Turner has worked closely with myself and Mrs Clark and we are both grateful for everything she has done. We would like to wish her good luck in her new role.

Have a great summer with your family and friends, stay safe and we will see you in September.

It has been an absolute privilege to support your child in my role as Pastoral Support Officer for Year 10. I’ve enjoyed getting to know each of them and even though I am leaving the year group I look forward to seeing them around school and monitoring their progress through year 11.

Thank you all for your support and kindness, I wish you a relaxing, happy and sunny holiday time.

It’s been a very quiet week in the Sixth Form block with our students out on their work experience. We hope they enjoyed their varied placements this week –a special thank you to all the parents/carers, family members and family friends who have hosted our students.  We’re so thankful that they get this experience. If you’re willing to provide a work experience in the future for one of our Sixth Form students, either in July next year or any time of year, please send your information to Miss Freeman. We’re always grateful for new and returning placement providers.

Next week many of our sports students will be enjoying their trip to South Africa, and we wish them well. The rest of the year group will be enjoying Sports Day on Tuesday 18th July, and end of term praise assembly on Friday.

In lessons next week many students will find out their IPE results and this summer is an important time for students to complete their research into the next steps and prepare for sending university and apprenticeship applications in the autumn term.

For those students who have taken summer BTEC exams results are issued (with the Year 13 students) on August 17^th, and GCSE English and Maths results are released on August 24^th. 

We wish all of our Year 12 students a restful and enjoyable summer holiday, and we look forward to seeing them on the 7^th September to start Year 13.