Dear ALS Community,
I hope that the half-term break was a good one for you and your family. I enjoyed the chance to be at home with Henry (who, as he heads towards 2, increasingly earns the moniker Henry ‘the hurricane’ Preston) and bumping into the odd parent or two at swimming classes and the like. Today, we have celebrated a “pyjama day” in support of LWS Night Shelter and the whole school community has joined in the spirit of the day. More than he’d ever let on, I’m pretty sure Mr Owen has enjoyed leading meetings in his dressing gown and slippers today. My thanks to all who took part to raise money for a good cause.
To help our pupils with their future career aspirations, we are looking for parent volunteers to assist with our careers program throughout this academic year. We have held a range of successful events in recent years where pupils have benefited immensely from the input from our community. If you are able to share your expertise, whatever your field, and are willing to give up some time to support our pupils then please email [email protected].
Coming up, we have some key events to share. On Tuesday, our Year 11 pupils will take part in the Sixth Form Market Place where pupils will be able to speak with the teachers of A Level subjects to find out more and ask questions from broad ones like “what is Politics?” or “what is the difference between Sociology and Psychology?” through to simple ones like “What grades do you need to study Art?”. Then, on Thursday 10th November from 6.00pm, our Sixth Form Open Evening will take place where we will explain to our prospective Sixth Form pupils about life in ALS Sixth Form, the benefits of an ALS Sixth Form education and the process for securing a place for September 2023. We already have the highest number of external applications for Sixth Form ever so it’s an exciting time for us.
On the sporting front, congratulations to our Senior School swimmers who competed in the ISA Swimming Competition before half term as we have now had the results and can confirm that we finished 3rd place in the ISA table. Considering there were well in excess of 20 schools competing, this is an outstanding result for ALS and reflects the quality of our sports provision for swimming. Isla (Y7), Maddy (Y11), Erik and Dhiran (both Y8) have qualified to represent the ISA Midlands team at the National finals on Saturday 3rd December at the London Aquatic Centre, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, well done to all pupils involved! This week, our Junior Swimming Team have competed in the Junior version of the event and, again, there were some excellent results during the day with Paige winning her freestyle heat with 2nd place finishes from Alissa (breaststroke), Georgie (freestyle) and Jemima (backstroke) and 3rd place finishes for Stanley (breaststroke and backstroke), Evie (backstroke), Alina (backstroke) and Roman (freestyle). The highlight was the Y6 girls storming to victory in the relay.
Keeping with sport, congratulations to our U11 hockey teams who put in two fantastic performances. Our A team were victorious 3-0 and our B team, despite playing extremely well, had to settle for a 0-0 draw. Is it worth saying these were against Crackley? I think they were? Well done to all athletes who have competed this week.
Next week, we will be holding a series of assemblies to mark Remembrance Day before our service on Friday 11th November. Over the next week, House Captains will be selling Poppies and Remembrance memorabilia (prices range to up to £2.00) and the funds raised go back to support the British Legion. Whilst not compulsory, I hope to see many pupils wearing their poppy with pride.
To close the weekly email, I’d just like to share a few reminders. Firstly, for parking; between 3.30-4.15pm, we prepare our bus service for pupils to head home at the end of the day in both our ‘main’ car park and the Binswood Avenue Car Park. Please avoid driving into the school car park at this time as you may get “trapped” between the buses. Secondly, if your child is absent due to illness, please do call the school office on 01926 778050 (option 3) and leave a voicemail to advise us. You can also email your child’s mentor/class teacher and reception on [email protected].
Over the weekend, I’m sure there’ll be lots of families attending Bonfire events (who doesn’t love a good toffee apple?!). Though he was fascinated by people knocking on our door at Halloween and helping me hand out the ‘treats’, Henry’s a little too little for Bonfire Night just yet but I look forward to taking him when he’s older! On the topic of Halloween, I want to share a huge thank you to the work of our Sixth Form who led and organised our Halloween Disco(s) for the Junior school. Lots of costumes, music, dancing and fun, the events were a wonderful success. It’s a mark of the wonder of our school when Sixth Formers take such joy out of the work they can do with our younger children. Well done, team Sixth Form!
Have a great weekend.
Best wishes,
David Preston | Headteacher |
