As we reach the end of the Spring Term, I am sure you’ll be looking forward to some quality family time over Easter. Whilst I advocate the need for all of our pupils to rest up after a busy term, for pupils in Years 11 and 13, who face the commencement of their GCSE and A Level examinations shortly after we return for the Summer Term, the Easter break is an excellent opportunity to get some extra revision in to try and push those grades up just a little higher. That said, there must be room for some relaxation in there as well, of course – to be at their very best for their examinations, pupils should be getting plenty of sleep, eating well and trying to find a good balance with their revision and their time to rest.
This week, we held a yellow and blue themed day in support of raising money for Ukraine. There was a very strong turn out from staff and pupils with lots of blue and yellow on show - my thanks to all who took part. On Tuesday, we held our first ever ‘ALS Seniors’ Got Talent Show’ and, today, we held our ‘ALS Juniors’ Got Talent’. Both sets of performances were wonderful and very much in keeping with the spirit of ALS. From the audience being supportive of their friends and peers, through to the quality of the performances, we couldn’t have asked for more from our pupil community. My thanks to the Heads of Houses for organising the event. Whilst I was pulled away from the judging panel, I’m assured that the House Captains and Vice House Captains took on the mantel with aplomb. Well done to all those that took part and many congratulations to the winners!
There are far better qualified than me to write about the symbolism of Easter (I can think of at least one member of our community in particular!) but there is, for me at least, a sense of hope and of new beginnings at this time of year. As we enter the Summer Term and look to September 2022 and beyond, for us as a school community, I feel that we enter a new phase of our school development and this sense of a new beginning is quite pertinent for us.
In many ways, the past few years have been about working through Covid-19 and the years before that were the start of our growth towards the school that we now are. It is exciting to think that in September we will be full (in terms of our total capacity) and that, as a result, we have a number of new teachers and colleagues joining us in September to add that skill and expertise to our teaching team.
When we return from Easter, Mr Lukas Colledge will be taking up the post of Head of Key Stage 3. Mr Colledge has held the role of Year 7 transition lead for the past few years and he will succeed Miss Cox in the role as Miss Cox returns to teaching Art full time. I am sure you will join me in congratulating Mr Colledge on his new role.
Finally, I would like to thank ALPA for the Easter Eggs enjoyed by all the pupils on Tuesday – the Juniors thoroughly enjoyed their Easter Egg hunt at the Leamington Cricket Club and there was a flurry of activity throughout the Senior phase corridors as word got out that there might be some eggs to collect. A big thank you from all of us.
Over Easter, I’ll be chasing Henry around and taking him to visit his Uncle in Spain. Henry has been walking for a little while now so we have managed to get much use out of our Arnold Lodge puddle suit!
Have a wonderful Easter and we look forward to seeing you all back on Tuesday 26th April for our first day of the Summer Term.
