It is so good to notice the days getting a little longer, seeing a little bit of daylight in the mornings and beginning to feel the warmth of the sun on your face. The birdsong is a little louder and the first shoots of spring can be seen all around. I always feel that Spring is the season of change and growth and this is very much the time that many of our students start thinking about their futures and begin planning the next stage in their education.
In the last few weeks I have joined the Lower School transition team visiting the Year 6 students and their parents in some of our partner primary schools. These 'Road Shows' allow students and parents to find out all about life here at St. Ninian's and ask questions about the school. I must thank our Head of Year 7, Mrs. Parr, who has arranged all of the transition events this year and by the time our Year 6 students finally join us next September they will have experienced several visits over to our Lower School to take part in a wide variety of events, such as the Trash Bash, Big Noise Concert, PE activites, not to mention the two official Welcome Days next term! They will also already have met a number of teachers from our school who will have gone out to our primary schools to teach and spend time getting to know the new students. All of these events are opportunities to start building the positive relationships between the students and the staff at the school and I am sure by the time next September arrives our new students will be more than ready to start their secondary education and make the most of the many opportunities they will have here.
Last week also saw our Sixth Form Open Evening which is an opportunity for all our prospective Sixth formers and their parents to come and find out a little bit about life in Sixth Form here at Upper School. I was very pleased to welcome such large numbers of potential students from both our school and beyond and hope they all enjoyed the talks by our Head of Sixth Form, Mr. Schofield and the conversations and questions they were able to ask all of our teachers at the subject stalls representing the 30+ courses we have on offer next year in the Sixth Form. Parents and potential students were also able to talk with all of our current Sixth Formers who were in attendance on the night and I must thank our senior prefects who gave their insightful accounts of life in Sixth Form from a student perspective. Our Sixth Form continues to go from strength to strength and I am pleased to report that we will be able to continue to develop and improve the quality of the accommodation for our Sixth Form at the Upper School site further and will hopefully be able to share details of this with you over the coming months.
— Chris Coole, Headteacher