Welcome to the penultimate week of the academic year! 

Reflecting on last week's unprecedented heatwave, I want to start this week's HoS letter by expressing my pride and thanks in how our entire school community responded to such challenging conditions. The Met Office's Red Weather Warning meant moving to half days on Wednesday and Thursday, followed by a full site closure on Friday as temperatures remained in the mid 30s. Throughout these disruptions, our community embodied our core values of Prepare, Aspire, Succeed.

By this point in the academic year, the school heating is usually turned off until October. However, because it has been so cold this week, our exam students were really feeling the chill in the Hall and the Old Gym. Sitting still for several hours doesn’t generate much body heat, even with a jumper and blazer on. To ensure our students were fully prepared to focus entirely on their papers without distraction, we turned the heating back on. The weather looks to be warming up to more seasonal temperatures this week, so we hope to turn it off again soon. Despite the unseasonal cold, our students have shown immense resilience. A huge well done must go to our Year 11 and Year 13 students, who are now fully immersed in the main summer exam season and showing the high aspirations we encourage across all year groups. We also extend our praise to the Year 12 students taking Core Maths, Further Maths, and modular BTEC exams, all of whom are approaching their assessments with that same commendable drive to achieve their very best and succeed.

I hope you managed to enjoy some sunshine despite the mixed weather over the Bank Holiday weekend. This week, GCSE written exams begin for students studying Health and Social Care, Drama, German, and Sports Studies. A-Level Art students undertake their 15-hour final exam too. Looking ahead to next week, the written A-Level examinations begin, and for the rest of Year 11, from 11th May.

In Japan, the word sakura (桜) translates to cherry blossoms and is believed to originate from the word saku (咲), which simply means to bloom. In Japanese culture, these beautiful flowers are deeply symbolic, representing spring, renewal, hope, and the fleeting nature of life due to their brief but spectacular blooming period. Each spring is marked by these sakura bursting to life, with people gathering for hanami (flower-viewing parties) to appreciate their delicate beauty. The anticipation is so great that Japanese media features dedicated blossom watch weather reports as people eagerly wait for them to flower!

Welcome to the final week of this short term! As we prepare to break for our Easter holiday this Friday, I want to reflect on a truly momentous few days for our school. As you know, Ofsted visited us last week for our first inspection since November 2021; I am beyond proud of our community. The new Ofsted framework has been in use since last November, and with anything new, it can be tricky to know if your interpretation of the guidance is correct and if you’ll do the school and the community justice. The six inspectors were incredibly impressed with our students' characters, noting how polite, respectful, and resilient they are, both in their learning and around the school site. Importantly, the inspection team saw exactly what I wrote to you about last week - the conduct and maturity that visitors praise is simply who our students are every single day. Thank you so much for the support, kindness, and understanding you, as families, showed us throughout last week.