Try Three Challenge

This blog is largely aimed at those connected to students in Years 7 and 8, but hopefully the message is relevant to everyone. There’s also a little update on ‘Industrial Action’ at the end too.

This week in assemblies, following on from the very important Children’s Mental Health week messages, Mrs Osgood has spoken to Year 7 and Year 8 about the extra curricular offer in school. Mr Osgood is our Head of Drama and is also leading on the ‘extra curricular revival’ after covid, and like me he is really keen to encourage students to try out different extra curricular clubs and activities. We have a really good range of things that students can do at lunchtimes and after school, from sport to performance to games and hobbies. There’s a huge choice and it’s growing all the time. I was really encouraged in the Year 8 assembly to see that about half of the students responded ‘yes’ to Mr Osgood when he asked if they had attended at least one club or activity this year. That’s not bad…but we’d love it to be more!

To encourage our younger students to give something new a try, Mr Osgood launched the Try Three Challenge. Every student was given a simple loyalty card style piece of card, and was asked to try three activities between now and Easter. Students who get three signatures from three different things will be entered for a prize draw in the celebration assembly at the end of term. Sounds pretty good to me! Of course extra curricular activities are open to all students, and many do take part in Year 9-11, but hopefully by getting into good habits now our Year 7 and 8 students can embrace the offer and carry on for the rest of their time at the school.

Finally, as promised, a little word on upcoming industrial action. The next NEU strike is due to take place on 28th February, which is the first Tuesday back after our half term break. A lot can change between now and then, but I wanted to give families as much notice as possible that if things play out like they did on 1st February, it is highly likely that school will be closed for Years 7-10. I will confirm more when I can.

Thanks

Joe Barker

Share!