It has been a very busy first week back in College after the half term break!
PSFA AGM and Meeting
Thank you to those parents who attended and supported at our PSFA meeting and AGM on Monday evening. Particular thanks to Bev Brown, outgoing Chair of the PSFA who has most recently led the group and contributed to the PSFA for four years. During this time, the PSFA has raised nearly £100,000 for the College. At our most recent meeting, the PSFA committed to funding Science and Food equipment, resources for our new Italian and Mandarin courses, and equipment to support in our Pastoral Hub. We are incredibly grateful to all of the volunteers who give up their time to support the PSFA, and for all parental donations.
Year 7 Chromebook Launch
This week has been incredibly exciting for our year 7 students! Yesterday they received their new Chromebooks as part of our 1:1 device scheme. This initiative supports our commitment to providing students with the necessary tools to enhance their learning experience, both in lessons and at home. Each device is pre-configured with educational apps, filtered for security, and will provide access to curriculum resources, ensuring your child can fully engage with their studies in a safe online environment. The students had a morning with staff who have had additional training in using 1:1 devices, and who have briefed them on online safety, care of the devices, and how to maximise their effectiveness in lessons.
Parents will also have the chance to come into College for a workshop on 20th November, led by Mr Gee, where they can experiment and learn more about the Chromebooks.
Grafham Water
Year 7 have been out this week on their residential trip to Grafham Water, where they have enjoyed spending time getting to know each other in their groups, and participating in a range of activities, from High Ropes, Orienteering, Bushcraft, Canoeing and Archery. It has also been a great chance for the students to work with staff from across the College, and for us to see the students in a new setting. We have been very proud of the ways that they have embodied the attributes of the IB Learner Profile, from being caring towards each other, being ‘risk takers’ and showing off their communication and teamwork. As always we are very grateful to our teaching staff and TAs for being willing to support the trip.
Japan Day 2024
Our Japanese students have enjoyed a visit this week to the annual Japan Day trip in London, at Birkbeck, the University of London. They enjoyed a range of Japanese themed activities, from talks, workshops and lectures, to cultural enrichment opportunities, including calligraphy, origami and Shogi (Japanese chess). The day also provided students with the chance to learn more about Japanese studies at university and career paths after.
Daniell Lecture: King’s College London
Our sixth form Chemists this week also had the chance to visit King’s College, London, where they attended the annual Daniell Lecture, which was this year titled “Building Molecules sustainably” and was led by Professor Rebecca Goss. In addition to the Keynote lecture, the students had the chance to explore a research poster exhibition and demonstrations, and listen to a talk from a current PhD student. The trip was a great chance for the students to experience Chemistry within a higher education setting, and also to support with their preparations for their Group 4 (Sciences) Project, a core component of their Chemistry IB programme, which requires them to work collaboratively on a scientific or technological investigation.
Indoor Athletics Plus
Some of our pupils with additional needs also had the chance to attend the district Indoor Athletics Plus competition this week, where they took part in a range of adapted running, throwing and jumping events. As always our students represented the College very well both in team and individual events, and did themselves proud!
Message from ELA: Term Dates Feedback
In the 2024/25 academic year, Eastern Learning Alliance is conducting a trial whereby we are shortening the Autumn term – we have extended the October half term by two days and will be breaking up for Christmas three days earlier. The teaching hours this creates (referred to as “disaggregated” time) are being used to provide a variety of academic support, interventions, and extra-curricular clubs outside of the normal school day, spread across the school year.
This means we are able to offer an enhanced programme of extra-curricular clubs and academic interventions in each school using contracted teacher time.
In order to set our term dates for 2025/26, we are collating evidence as part of an evaluation to help us decide whether to take a similar approach going forwards.
This section of our website outlines the context and thinking behind this trial, together with how we are evaluating it: https://tela.org.uk/information/term-date-trial/
Part of the evaluation involves collecting feedback from staff, students and parents. We would be grateful if you could fill in the form below to give us your views: https://forms.office.com/e/Kp60VjT7NH
