Doing the right thing

‘Doing the right thing’ and helping and supporting others is incredibly important. People will remember you in the future if you help them and are respectful and considerate towards them. This week is Sports Relief and we will be holding a variety of activities in College to support this charity. Helping to raise money for others who are less fortunate than we are is important and as a school this is something we must all do. The money you raise for Sport Relief will help to treat children who malaria, support mental health charities in the UK and also create safe spaces for people to be safe and active. All of these things are vitally important.

 I am always impressed by the way you ‘up your game’ to raise money and support charities. We have the charity cake sale for Cancer Research last week, which raised money for this vital cause. It is also important that you do the right thing, which the vast majority of you do, every day. This includes simple things such as putting litter in the bin, helping others and the importance of good manners with everyone. Last week we had an incident on one of our buses – it was involved in an accident which caused the top floor front windscreen to break. I heard through more than one source that three of our Year 11 students did exactly the right thing and helped our younger students, some of whom were very concerned and worried. A perfect example of doing the right thing, when it is needed. Thank you to Oscar, Imogen and Luke for this.

 Other students who are doing the right thing are our Year 11. I visit your lessons in particular very frequently to see how you are working, as do other teachers. You are, in the vast majority of cases, working really hard. Please keep this up – hard work now will pay off in the summer. I’d also like to thank the Year 11 who are doing the right thing by attending revision sessions in College, as well as revising at home. Keep it up, please.

 Last week we celebrated the Gilbert Hannam Awards Evening. Gilbery Hannam founded our school in 1672 – nearly 350 years ago. He created an education foundation, which still supports us today. Since I started at the school, in September 2016, Gilbert Hannam Education Foundation has donated tens of thousands of pounds to the College. Or Wifi, all Year 11 revision books, awards and support for trips all come through the GHEF. It is right that we have this evening every day where we remember what he did for our school and what the foundation still does for us now.

 There is a lot to mention from last week. We had visitors in from Sussex University running a planetarium for science week, we had an employee in from the Bank of England to meet students to talk about finance and we also participated in the BBC School Report.

 As the weather improves (although the weekend was very cold…) I will be asking that only Year 11 are in the school building before school. We did this last year to provide a quiet area for Year 11 to revise and I would like to do the same again this year. You will also know that we have some problems with our water fountains. Some of them are currently out of order. We have ordered replacements, which will be in school very soon. The canteen are putting jugs of water out every break and lunch for you to make sure you stay hydrated while we wait for the new fountains to arrive – hopefully very soon.

 Have a good week