HEADTEACHER'S WELCOME

I hope this finds you well and that you enjoy the latest edition of our termly newsletter.

There’s lots packed into this issue, showcasing what our students have been up to.

Black History month has been a success with students getting involved in the Trust ‘We are one’ event and taking part in the art competition. ‘We are one’ events are when students from across all Trust schools take part in the same activities which are then celebrated across all our schools.  Our Trust continues to grow with schools from Essex to Plymouth with Kent, Portsmouth and Torbay along the way.  Plymouth High and Plympton Academy are the two Thinking Schools in Plymouth, and we now have four Grammar schools in our Trust.  Our growing Trust gives our students the chance to get involved on a national footing and, as part of that, Plymouth High leads on student voice across all our schools, with student council, Earth Alliance and debating being three of the areas that have been particularly successful.  Well done to our student leaders for making these activities so successful.

Our talented magazine editor has just published the latest edition of our student written and produced Hear Me Out magazine. Please do have a read, it is inspiring and so professionally crafted.  The latest edition has highlights from one of the other Grammars in our Trust and our ambition is to involve more and more schools in contributing to our magazine or creating their own.  This is a potentially significant area of student collaboration.

Thank you to everyone for their generosity over the Ukraine Christmas box appeal.  Do have a read to see how well our community have done to help people in need.

This term we say goodbye to Mr Payne.  Mr Payne has decided that he would like to pursue other interests and will be leaving us this week.  Mr Payne has done a superb job with growing the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, and we thank him for his skill and determination to involve as many young people as possible.  There are some students currently enroled on the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, and we will write to these students and their parents after half-term to set out how they will plan to move forward.  In the meantime, we wish Mr Payne the best of luck in his new ventures.

Wishing you all a happy and restful half-term holiday.

Best wishes,

Mr Underdown