Dear ALS Community,
With just a week left of this half-term, I want to share my deep gratitude with the whole of the school community. In the summer, we set out to build a risk assessment that, whilst it would take a lot of effort from the adults in school, would give the children the very best that we could whilst also keeping them safe. Inside our school, pupils are going about their school day in a more or less normal fashion. Reception are having a fantastic time, seizing control of the climbing frame, visiting farm yards, forest schools and building up their phonics and numeracy. Year 7 have made their way through their first half-term of Senior School, cementing friendships and finding new favourite lessons. New joiners throughout the school feel like they’ve been with us for years. The success of the pupils’ return to school doesn’t just happen and I want to thank all of the school community for helping us get this right for children. I can’t thank you enough. From our tireless cleaning team through to mums, dads, grandparents and aunties and uncles who support at home…thank you.
The final mantra of this half-term comes from Veritas: Do the right thing at the right time. As it always is with Veritas, the mantras run much deeper than “tell the truth” (though that’s not a bad message in itself).
This mantra, I think, focuses on a sense of knowing that the ‘right thing’ and the ‘right time’ are sometimes distinct from each other and a recognition that the ‘right thing’ is rarely the easy thing. All too often, the ‘right thing’ in the long term can sometimes present as the wrong thing in the short term. But, that’s the point of the Veritas mantras - a sense of reflection and understanding that what is right is rarely easy and it is rarely greeted in the short term with a round of applause. I hope that you find the mantras useful to discuss at home to keep the culture of our school community going. I imagine you’ll find using Dedicas and Amicus mantras easier to convey the importance of hard work and dedication as well as kindness and gratitude to children but I hope that we can also find time to delve in to Veritas mantras. They’re more introspective - and abstract, to an extent - but I think there’s all the more impact for the children for that.
Earlier this week, we held our Sixth Form Taster afternoon for our Year 11 pupils. Though we couldn’t hold our usual set of taster lessons, Year 11 were able to spend time in Sixth Form, have a presentation about life at ALS Sixth Form and then take part in a subject ‘market place’ to discuss subject options for the future. For September 2021, our offering is very broad with both A Level and BTECs on offer. Alongside the subjects you’d expect, Year 11 have the chance to also consider studying subjects such as Politics, Performing Arts, Creative Media Digital Games Production, and Criminology. Based on the reaction of the pupils, it was a particular success. Criminology, in particular, came away as a much talked about option. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of discussion in the weeks to come about which subjects to pick and which combination works best.
You may have seen, if you picked up from school on Wednesday afternoon, that we had a videographer capturing some footage. Our Reception class were particularly fascinated when the videographer was using the drone to capture aerial footage earlier in the day.
The footage is going to be used for a virtual tour to help parents who are unable to visit ALS get a chance to see the school. Over half-term, we’ll also be putting the finishing touches to our new website which I am particularly excited about. By the time we return after the break, we should have the virtual tour to share and the new website to show you, too. A big thank you to all the pupils who supported our filming for the tour.
I’ve had the pleasure this week of starting to show our Year 6 pupils around the Senior School. With almost all of our Year 6 having now confirmed to stay through to Year 7, it’s more a chance for the pupils to get a feel for the layout of the Senior School than it is a ‘tour’. We’ve had great fun looking in Science, saying hello to Miss Cox in art, asking questions about lockers (there’s much excitement about having a locker) and finding older siblings to suitably embarrass them as the Year 6 pupil proudly waves to their big brother or sister. Much like for the Year 11 Sixth form taster, there’s a wonderful excitement for children as they consider the next phase of their education. As an all-through school, it is absolutely a privilege to be able to be part of this transition for children from 4-18, watching them grow from their EYFS curriculum to Key Stage 1 before making the leap to Key stage 2 and then the big jump (though it’s not that bad, really) to Senior education. After our pupils succeed in their GCSEs, we’re there, too, as they progress to their A Levels and BTECs before they head on to university. At each transition point, there is enough change for children to find the new adventure challenging and exciting with enough of the similarity from what they know to keep them feeling happy and confident. In this way, I think an all-through education is unbeatable.
After Wales had a bit of a drubbing in football this week, I’m going to hope that there’s some sort of glimmer in the rugby when the Autumn Nations Cup comes around in a few weeks. I don’t hold out too much hope there, to be honest! I hope that your weekend is a lovely one, filled with time with family and friends.
Best wishes,
David Preston
Headteacher
