Dear all,

This week has absolutely flown by. I hope you'll excuse a relatively brief letter as I'm about to head down to Dartmoor to spend the weekend with our Year 9 Ten Tors Team completing their practise expedition. The weather certainly looks like it will be character building for us!

First, three quick notices:

• The deadline for our parent survey is this Sunday. Please click here to complete it. Thank you to everyone who has already completed it - I will share the results next week.

• We are running tours around the school for the rest of the term. Please click here to book one and come and see for yourself the progress we have been making as a school!

• Finally, I wanted to confirm that the school gates are now open to students from 07:30. Breakfast is available from the Performing Arts Food Pod, and we have members of staff supervising in the canteen. 

We've also been busy in school this week.

On Tuesday, we celebrated International Womens' Day. Staff shared their reflections on the women who have influenced us the most with students, and it was great to hear some of the discussions around role models. I had the absolute pleasure to work for two exceptional, female Headteachers before becoming a Headteacher myself, and have learned a huge amount from their strong and principled leadership. As both a trust and a school we are working hard to eradicate the gender pay gap in our organisation, andwhile the teaching profession is better than many others at this, we recognise that we still have some way to go to achieve full equity. 

I also want to recognise Year 11 for the fantastic effort they have put in this week on their assessments. I'm looking forward to seeing how they have done before we head towards their GCSEs next term!

Finally we have also been overwhelmed by the generous donations to our Ukraine appeal. Mr King and Mr Hlad are delivering the items to the Ukrainian Church this evening, who will then ship them on to those most in need. I'm hugely grateful to everyone who has donated - you can see just some of the donations below, along with some of the students who have helped collate everything. 

With best wishes,

Mr Farmbrough