Year 11 students completed their first set of trial exams this week. I am very pleased to say that overall their attitude and behaviour was excellent. These exams are good practice for them for the final summer exams and also give teachers an indication of any interventions your child may require to help them achieve their best final result.

Parents/carers of Year 11 students will have received an email inviting them to book appointments for our Year 11 Parents’ Evening on 5 December, in school from 4.00 pm - 7.00 pm, using the Arbor App. This is an excellent opportunity to discuss your child’s progress with their individual subject teachers. If you have any problems booking appointments, please contact: donna.keogh@carisbrooke.iow.sch.uk.

On Wednesday, some of our Year 10 GCSE Music students and members of our Song Cafe singing club went to Osborne House to perform in the historic Durbar Room for visitors as part of their Christmas guided tours. Our students were outstanding both as musical performers and as representatives of our community here at Carisbrooke, and received a very warm welcome and rave reviews from the English Heritage team and their visitors. 

Year 8 students had a visit from Ella Cooke from the Waste and Recycling Unit this week. Thank you to Mrs Gove for organising this visit; the students found it very interesting.

With the countdown to Christmas now in full swing, please remember to return your consent forms and make payment for the annual Santa Dash if your child would like to take part. Also, we are continuing with our Food Bank collection. If you have any items of pre packed food or toiletries that you would like to donate, please drop them into reception. Thank you to those who have already brought in their donations.

Tickets are now available to purchase via Arbor for our student performance of ‘Alice’. This is an open event and everyone is welcome! Please bring friends and family and let's give our students some good audiences to showcase their hard work and make it two sell-out performances.

We also have our Christmas Concert which is free to attend and no tickets are required. Wednesday 18 December at Newport Minster (St Thomas' Square, PO30 1SL). Christmas refreshments will also be available. This will be a great opportunity for us to come together as a community and celebrate this festive time of year.

As a polite reminder, if a student is absent, parents/carers should telephone school before 8.45am on the day of absence on 01983 524651, select option 1, followed by the relevant year group option number. Phone calls need to be made every day of the student's absence and a message left on the voicemail informing of the reason for the absence.

Congratulations to our highest achievement point winners last week, Lexi and Caleb in Year 7, Lilly Year 8, Cody, Jacob, Ayden, Dakota and Daisy Year 9, Holly Year 10 and Roo Year 11.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Begley

Head of School - Carisbrooke College