It has been another busy week at Carisbrooke with our Year 11 additional sessions in full swing and our extra curricular activities taking place. It is great to see so many students signing up to these clubs and and revision sessions.

Thank you to all the parents who attended our ‘Help Your Child to Revise’ Evening on Thursday. Feedback was that it was a very informative and useful event. Information that was shared during the evening will be given out to students for those parents who could not attend. Here is the link to the revision booklet on our website.  Parents of students in Year 10 may also find it useful to save this guide and encourage your child to use it to build up their revision notes in preparation of their GCSE exams next year. If you have any queries, please contact the Head of Year in the first instance.

Next week on Wednesday we’ll be taking a group of Mandarin students to the BFI Southbank in London and a group of Year 10 students attending the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton to watch a performance of An Inspector Calls on Thursday.

Our Student Council has been working hard to finalise the decision around student toilets. After long debates and disagreements, listening to feedback from parents, students and staff, the decision is that the top floor toilets are going to be for males only, middle floor females only and bottom floor unisex. This will be throughout the whole day (social times and lesson time). This change will begin next week, 27 January. We truly value the views of our students and school community, and the Student Council has done an excellent job representing their peers. We regularly meet with students to gather feedback and discuss how we can improve their school experience.

We have our Year 9 Parents’ Evening on Thursday 13 February and an invitation will be sent out to parents next week to book their appointments. This is an excellent opportunity for you to meet with your child’s individual subject teachers to discuss their progress in Year 9.

I am pleased to announce that Carisbrooke College, along with other schools on the Island, will be taking part in a Mufti Day on 7 February in support of a local teenager, Arlo, who has been diagnosed with a rare grade 4 brain tumour. The local community are fundraising to help pay for his treatment and expenses. You can read more about Arlo and the fundraising here. This is a wonderful example of how we can come together as a community to show our solidarity and support. More details can be found below.

In school we are aware of the increasing number of illnesses doing the rounds at the moment. If your child is unfit to attend school, please remember to call in on the school number 524651 and select the absence/Head of Year option to let us know. Alternatively, you can send a message via the Arbor App. We will be increasing the amount of hand sanitiser around the school and encouraging students to use this as they enter and leave each classroom.

Have a lovely weekend.

Natalie Sheppard
Executive Headteacher - Carisbrooke College