The year six students met with their tutors on Wednesday, undertook a day of lessons on Thursday and on Friday spent the day in team and challenge activities. What a wonderful group of young people. Our thanks to all of our staff who made sure the days went well, to our new parents for preparing them for secondary and to our primary colleagues who have guided them through their formative years of learning. Also, many thanks to our own sports leaders, pictured at the top of the page, who led activities on Friday with maturity and confidence.

Activities week

Next week is of course activities week and we are looking forward to the opportunity of undertaking a wide range of activities. Our staff have made appropriate amendments to programmes as a result of the weather warnings and so we will be able to go ahead with these adjustments in place.

Rugby for Ukraine

We have been asked to pass on information regarding "Derby stands with Ukraine, Rugby stands with Ukraine" which is taking place on Saturday 6th August. Further details are here.

Examination webinars for parents

Waiting on exam results can be a stressful time and can be a period of anxiety for both teenagers and their family worrying about the future. The Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families has a series of webinars, aimed at parents, carers and family members who have children in year eleven and / or year thirteen. The webinars will provide attendees with strategies to support young people who are waiting on their results.

Offbeat

Please have a watch of the track written to celebrate diversity and identity that our music club have created. It is wonderful and they are a credit to the school.

Training and development

On top of all of the events this week, we also held a staff training event, where the four teaching and learning research groups were able to present their findings to the whole staff on the following areas:

• understanding assessment

• SEND cognition

• retrieval

• modelling

We continue to develop our own understanding of the most effective ways through which students learn and will be adding further strategies to our approaches in September.