Dear ALS Community,
It’s officially the Christmas period as I listened to Michael Buble on Spotify yesterday and I wore a Christmas tie to school today. In my defence, I was making sure I looked festive for filming our remote Christmas Concert but, just the same, I don’t think there’s much harm in embracing the Christmas spirit a little earlier this year.
We start with some wonderful news and success in the Independent School’s Association Midlands Art Competition. Poppy, Year 8, has won the overall 2D art competition for her drawing titled “Wakanda” which was created using prisma colour wax pencils. Skye, Year 9, won the overall KS3 and KS4 award for her photography with a piece titled “Dark Glass”, both pieces will now be entered into the National Awards, with judging taking place in February.
This week, you may have seen that we were BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Radio’s “Star School”. Throughout the week, we’ve had pupil interviews live on the radio and a pre-record from our journalism club from Junior School. As part of Star School, BBC CWR encourage families from the school to text in for a shout out and, for some light hearted fun, we made this a bit of a competition for the houses if pupil could get their name and their house read out. At the end of the week, it’s Dedicas who come out winners with 18 points! Amicus sat in second (with 13) and Veritas in third (with 12). On Monday, George and Elysia, Year 10, were interviewed. Then, on Wednesday, Matilda, Year 2; Amelia, Year 10 and Ms Smith were all interviewed before, on Friday, Ana and Rudy lead a news segment which included an interview with Mr Smart. My thanks to the pupils and staff who participated - you were all fabulous! If you want to go back and listen again, you’ll find us on the breakfast show and skip to about 8:40am (or 2 hours 40 minutes in) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
This week, it’s a Veritas Mantra: Be Honest with Yourself First. Normally, I would use this mantra as inspiration to write about our own personal growth and to encourage conversations about self-reflection and how we can always look to improve. But, this time, I want us to be honest with ourselves in a different way. Since March, we have all been under pressure in different ways. It hasn’t been easy for anyone. So, let us take inspiration from the mantra this week not to reflect on personal development (we can worry about such things another day) but whether we simply need to cut ourselves a little slack and, to nab a little Amicus, to give that same slack to others, too. As we head in to a very different Christmas than usual where I know we will do all we can to make the children’s Christmas a lovely as it can be, I hope that you will take some time for yourself, too. After all, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
You may recall that we will now be the hub for Stagecoach in Leamington and Warwick, with a number of performing arts classes running out of ALS on the weekends. Now that lockdown has finished, Stagecoach for Leamington and Warwick will resume from Saturday 5th December. If you’d be interested in your child joining Stagecoach (and, after all, they’d know their way around well enough) do look up Stagecoach Leamington and Warwick here and let them know you’re an ALS family.
Over the past week, I have had the privilege of interviewing Year 6 pupils who have applied for scholarships for September 2021. The field this year was impressive and it was wonderful to get the chance to talk to pupil (both current ALS and external) about their successes, aspirations and why they have picked ALS as their number one choice for their secondary school years. Further to this, I am delighted to announce that Samantha Greenwood has been awarded a Headteacher’s Merit for her dedication to ALS and her commitment to extra-curricular activities. In addition, I am happy to share that Rudy Maxwell was successful in his application to be a Scholar for Year 7 September 2021. Congratulations also go to Phoebe Blackburn who has also been awarded the role of Scholar for entry to Year 7. Well done to both Rudy, Samantha and Phoebe!
Next week, on Friday 11th December, we’ll have one of the most important days of the year - Christmas Jumper day. Pupils will not need to wear their school uniform for the day but we will encourage them to wear a Christmas jumper if they have one to celebrate the day. Following on from that, on Tuesday 15th December, will be Christmas lunch. Paper hats, Christmas jumpers and Christmas lunch…what isn’t there to love?
I hope that you have a lovely weekend.
Best wishes,
David Preston | Headteacher
