End of term arrangements and celebration of successes

13^th December 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

Re: End of term arrangements and celebration of successes

I hope you and your families are well. I am writing to confirm arrangements for the last day of term, and share some of our successes this term.

School will close for the Christmas holidays on Friday 17^th December at 12.40pm. Friday will be a non-school uniform day, with an optional Christmas theme. A suggested donation of £1 is requested, which will go to charity. Students will be in normal lessons period 1 and 2, then they will return to their tutor groups to take part in a school-wide House Quiz, organised by Mrs Hilton. At 12.30pm we will take the final register of the term, then dismiss them one tutor group at a time to start their Christmas holidays. Due to the timings of this, at break time, there will be food available that is equivalent to the lunchtime provision, so that students can purchase enough food then. There will not be an additional lunchtime canteen service. The school building will be closed for the entire Christmas break in order to give staff a proper break after another challenging term.

Since my previous communication of the 29^th November regarding return to school in January, updated Public Health England and Department for Education guidance has changed.

When we return to school in January, we are required to carry out Lateral Flow Covid-19 testing for students whose parents have given consent to do so. We have now been instructed to make adjustments to limit interaction between students whilst they await their test results. This means that for the first three days of term following students’ return we cannot have all the year groups on-site until every year group has completed their first test.

Please note: Change to the return to school for different year groups:

• Tuesday 4^th January is a staff INSET day, so no students will be in school.
• Wednesday 5^th January: Years 11, 12 and 13 will return to school, complete their Lateral Flow Test on-site, and will attend normal lessons for the rest of the day. Following this, they will access the remote curriculum at home for the remainder of the week.
• Thursday 6^th January: Years 9 and 10 will return, and complete their Lateral Flow Test on-site, and will attend normal lessons for the rest of the day. Following this, they will access the remote curriculum at home for the remainder of the week.
• Friday 7^th January: Years 7 and 8 will return, and complete their Lateral Flow Test on-site, and will attend normal lessons for the rest of the day.
• Monday 10^th January: all students will return to school as normal.

Once each year group has returned, if any vulnerable children or those of Key Workers require access to an on-site provision, please email enquiries@budehaven.cornwall.sch.uk

Please note that the changes are a result of revised guidelines, and not a decision of the school.

There has been a lot of incredibly hard work taking place since our return to school in September, and I wanted to share some of the successes our school community have achieved. After 18 months with very little practical work, it has been wonderful for our students to be able to get back into the drama studio and work on building confidence and communication skills together. GCSE and A Level students are busy working on their performance exams and producing work of an incredibly high standard. Rehearsals are underway for our school production of Matilda and we could not be prouder of our enthusiastic and committed cast and crew. With rule changes, isolations and illness, it has been a bumpy ride so far, but so many of our young people are resilient and dedicated, taking everything in their stride and supporting each other whilst having a lot of fun. There are around 100 students involved with Matilda, which just goes to show how much we have missed opportunities like this. Looking ahead, we have tickets booked in the spring to see two West End productions on tour – Blood Brothers and Everybody’s talking about Jamie.

In Art, Year 7 have excelled themselves with great determination and really pushing their skills with their dinosaur drawings. Year 8 students have produced some fantastic paintings that really show a high standard of skill and great determination. Year 9 Artists have really developed with greater confidence and independence, and we are looking forward to welcoming so many of them onto the GCSE Art and Photography courses. We also have an end of term Winter WOW in Art happening to celebrate their work this term. The winners will receive WHSmith vouchers.

Despite having to cancel our face-to-face GCSE Options Evening, we were able to provide the same service in school, at lunchtimes in the Bistro. We talked to students about their potential options choices. For me personally as a science teacher, it was great to talk to so many Year 9 students about the Triple Science GCSE option, and listening to their career aspirations. If any parents, carers or students have any questions regarding their options for GCSE courses, please do contact Mr Grill via enquiries@budehaven.cornwall.sch.uk

We are delighted that so many students have signed up for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. The expeditions that took place in September and October were great, and supported by so many staff. Thank you to Mrs Hassall and Mr Blackbourn for organising this, and to the other staff who supported on the days.

Music is a subject and extra-curricular activity that every school needs in bucket loads; it has been so lovely to see the return of live performances, and despite having to postpone our Christmas concert into the new year, seeing students performing together has been a real treat this term. Well done to our school choir, whose rendition of Pink’s What about us on Friday was spectacular. Thank you Mrs Wade for her skilled conducting skills and one of our Sixth Formers for accompanying the choir on the piano. Two of our students passed their Grade 7 on Flute this term, another passed their Grade 6 on the French Horn, and another passed Grade 5 on the Tenor Saxophone. We also have a budding musical theatre star, who has passed their Grade 3 singing exam. Well done all.

We are very proud of our Modern Foreign Languages Department, who want to congratulate our students who are developing their speaking pronunciation and fluency using the Gioanfranco methods of learning modern foreign languages, and those students working towards building skills for GCSE, despite still being in Year 9.

Our Year 11’s attitude to their mock examinations in November was excellent; the best I have seen in 18 years in the teaching profession. Thank you to all our Year 11 students, and to you as parents and carers for your support. Our Head of Computing and ICT, Mr Renshaw would like to congratulate all pupils who have achieved the top grades in their Key Stage 3 assessments and those who have done so well in their Year 11 mock exams.

Our Year 11 students have worked hard on their Sixth Form and College applications for September. One of our students has received a prestigious place at Newquay College in September to study Zoology. Our Sixth Formers have been studiously applying to Universities, with the sterling efforts of Mr White to support them throughout this very competitive process. Huge congratulations to all of our Sixth Formers who have attended interviews, and received offers from Universities, or invitations to interviews, which include some of the top Red Brick Universities in the Country, as well as Oxbridge. We look forward to following their journey. If you know of any past students who are now at University, whether as your own children, or friends and family, please encourage them to write an email to us, telling us how they are doing via enquiries@budehaven.cornwall.sch.uk – we are always looking to build our alumni of past students, and use their stories to inspire our current students.

One of our Year 7 pupils received the accolade of Under 12 British Surf Champion this term; we are incredibly proud of his achievement. In other sporting news, our Under 14s and Under 16s Netball teams won their qualifying tournaments hosted here at Budehaven, and will be representing the school at the County Netball finals – we wish them well. All the Year 7 girls that competed in Netball and Football competition at Callington Community College won their heats; they would have gone through to the finals today, but due to Covid-19 levels in the area, were unable to go ahead and compete. Well done to everyone involved – you did us proud! It has been great to see clubs and fixtures back on the School calendar. Thank you to our Sports Leaders and Sixth formers for supporting the fixtures and clubs; without your help, sport in school wouldn’t be where it is today.

At the end of this term, we are saying goodbye to some staff. Miss Townsend and Mrs Spry, two of our Learning Support Assistants are moving on to pastures new, we thank them for their tireless support for our students, and we wish them well in all they do. Mrs Hughes in science is moving on to a new science job in another Cornwall school, and Mr Ellis, who has been with us for a year on a temporary basis is moving on. Thank you to both of you for all you have done for our Budehaven students. Mr Hichens has helped us out in maths this term, and now moves on to a new job elsewhere. We wish him well too.

I would also like to give our feeder primary schools a mention; we work very closely with some of the Primary School Headteachers in the area, and their continuous support for us is really appreciated.

Thank you for reinforcing our high standards of behaviour, uniform and attendance, right up to the last day of term. I wish you and your families a Happy Christmas, and all the best for 2022.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Dominic Wilkes

Headteacher