Last week, as discussed in our House assemblies, we have set a whole college challenge to do at least one act of kindness a day until the Easter holidays. This can be anything from holding the door open, to picking up litter (even if it isn’t yours!) Please inform your tutor if you see anyone going above and beyond in acts of kindness, who will then inform us for chance to win a prize!

Coronavirus is in the news every day and most countries in the World have been affected by it. I wrote to your parents / carers about our response to the illness. Our priorities in relation to Coronavirus are the following:

1.) to respond in a proportionate and measured way;

2.) to ensure all reasonable steps are taken to keep you safe;

3.) to follow the guidance provided by Public Health England

Hi.  We are Wynne-Elle and Sam and we are your new Head Boy and Head Girl.  

Sam and I are looking forward to working with everyone to improve the community environment at MRC.  We are excited to see a positive change at the College over the next year and encourage students to get involved with as many College events as they can. We want students to feel excited about coming to College and hope that we can voice the ideas the students have to make everyone feel they are a part of the College community.

I’d like to start my blog this week by welcoming you all back to College. I hope you all had a good half-term break and are well rested and ready for this half-term. This half-term, the College blog will be written by different people, including students, as well as by me. This will give you a chance to hear from different students and teachers across our College.

The two items in my blog this week are linked. Internet safety day is 11^th February and this is the theme for our year assemblies this week. The internet, as we know, is a fantastic tool. It allows us to work, shop, book holidays, do research and most importantly communicate with each other. The last point about communication has many positive elements attached to it, but there are also some risks that you need to make sure you are aware of. Mr Thompson talked about these risks in whole-college assembly last week. It is absolutely essential that you make sure that you are the right age to use social media sites. Your privacy settings must also be high, so that you only communicate with people that you know.

This year’s online safety theme is #Freetobe – FREE - Fairly treated, Represented, Equal and Empowered. Safer Internet Day (SID) 2020 is Tuesday 11 February, however, running all week during tutor times, assemblies and PSE lessons, there will be specific activities addressing the areas of ‘Free to be me online’!

Welcome back and a very Happy new Year to you all! I hope you all had a very good Christmas break and are ready and refreshed for a new term. A new year always gives time for reflection and an opportunity to plan ahead. It is a new start for everyone and looking back on last year, we had very strong examination performance, students going to some of the best universities in the country and also an increase in the number of students attending our College. The number of students wanting to attend here has also gone up and we have been asked to take more students in September.

As you read this, we are in the last week of a very busy term. Last week alone there was a lot happening in our College. I’d like to thank you all for your participation in the carol services and for your behaviour, attitude and engagement both in the Church and on the way there and back. The orchestra and music were fantastic – my thanks to all involved. As a College, we welcome students of all faiths and none – in this respect we mirror the society we live in. We have a faith room in College, which will be opened after the Christmas break and is in the AEN corridor. It will be run by Beth Pinder from the Church for two lunchtimes per week and will be open to students of all faiths and those of no faith.

We live in a democracy and this week on Thursday, a General Election will take place. We will have the opportunity to choose our leaders this week, including the political party(ies) that will eventually govern us.

Our school community has grown over the last few years and we now have just under 1100 children. One of our values is respect and it is essential that we all show this to each other, all the time.