Welcome to the first weekly email of the new school year!
I hope that your child has had an excellent start to the school year and that they have settled comfortably into their school routine…I daresay there will be some tired children this weekend having had their first full week of learning. I would like to extend a warm welcome to the new members of our school community receiving a weekly email for the first time - whilst I know that your child will love being at ALS, I am sure you will also enjoy being part of our school community. Tonight we have had our first community event with our annual welcome back BBQ (somewhat delayed since 2019…) which was a wonderful chance to celebrate the start of the new school year.
Each week, I will continue to share the house mantra for the following week to let you know our focus for assemblies, mentor time and the ‘theme’ of our week. For next week, our school mantra comes from Amicus: Be Grateful for the Kindness of Others. For this, I’d like to challenge the school community to thank someone who has shown kindness to you. For the children, that might be a teacher who has helped them settle in or a new friend they’ve made. Small gestures of kindness add up very quickly and help to make our community an even more wonderful place.
On the sporting front, I’d like to proudly share the success of George in Year 11. George was recently called up to represent the Warwickshire 2nd XI at the Ageas Bowl in a four day game against Hampshire. George had a very successful time ‘with the gloves’ taking several catches and Warwickshire were victorious in the fixture. To play this standard of cricket at such a young age is a tremendous achievement and is a big step towards George fulfilling his ambition of playing professional cricket. We’re very proud of George’s hard work and dedication to his sport whilst also balancing his studies - he doesn’t miss a beat with either (and so you won’t be surprised to read that George is in Dedicas House). I wouldn’t bet against seeing George turn out for England in the future!
We have a few key dates coming up. Firstly, we have a Sixth Form welcome evening on Thursday 16th September from 6pm and we have a Year 7 and New Senior Phase Pupils Welcome Evening on Thursday 23rd September. Miss Gulliver, our Head of Sixth Form, will communicate more information about the Sixth Form evening and, likewise, Mr Owen, the Head of Seniors, will share more about the Year 7 and New Senior Phase Pupils Welcome Evening in due course but do please pencil those dates in. For more key dates coming up this term and over the course of the year please do click here to view our school calendar on the website.
We also have our Autumn Open Day on Saturday 9th October. Attendance, for all pupils, is compulsory and we are also very keen to hear from any parents who would be happy to help out by conducting tours or to provide support in other ways. I do recognise that many within our community have not seen the school for some time and so we will also be offering tours to both prospective parents (of which there is already quite a list!) and current parents who wish to visit the school. Whether you’ll be seeing the school for the first time as you’ve joined us remotely or if you’d just like a look around to see the school after our renovations, to book yourself a tour slot to attend Open Day, please contact [email protected].
If you are using Arnies for wrap around care, there is a new link for booking which can be found here. Please do use this to secure your sessions with Arnies in the future.
After a great first week, I look forward to seeing the children really find their stride in school as we head into the second week of the term. The past two years have had such disruption that having a full term with the children on site, taking part in the usual rhythm of school life (such as assemblies, sports and extra-curricular activities) feels such a treat and it is one we must continue to appreciate in the future.
Have a wonderful weekend.
