Year 11 students started their first set of trial exams this week. So far, their behaviour and attitudes have been excellent. These exams can be a stressful time for students so please remind them that staff are here to support them through this process and to speak to their tutor or Mrs McDowall if they have any concerns. Due to the cold weather conditions and the exams being held in the Sports Hall, we are allowing students to wear a jumper (no logos or hoodies) or a coat for their exam. This will not be permitted during the final exams as these will be held in the summer months.

Year 11 attendance this week has seen a significant increase - above 95% for the year group every day in comparison to the average of 92%. This needs to continue post the trial exams as attendance has a significant impact on outcomes. That said, if your child has a temperature and/or a sore throat, and is poorly they should not come to school.

On Monday 11 November, we held our remembrance day service and our students’ behaviour and attitudes were absolutely impeccable - they did Carisbrooke College proud. We had one of our annual safeguarding reviews on Monday and I thought that I would share the feedback we had from our HISP visitors - our Remembrance Service on Monday was something they had never seen in a school before on such a scale and for our students to demonstrate the respect and behaviour they did throughout the whole service was simply incredible. You can read all about the service here.

Letters were emailed out to parents this week regarding our annual Santa Dash on the last day of this term. We are also starting the Food Bank collection leading up to Christmas. If you have any items of pre packed food or toiletries that you would like to donate, please drop them into reception.

Our Year 11 boys football team have been very busy with fixtures over the past couple of weeks. You can read all about their matches here. We are super proud of them!

Dates for your diaries - Rehearsals are going well for our production of Alice. There will be performances on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 December at 7.00 pm. Tickets are available to purchase on Arbor. Our Christmas Concert is at Newport Minster from 6.30 pm on Wednesday 18 December. This event is free to attend and all are welcome. We will have some festive refreshments and performances from various musical acts from Carisbrooke students.

Congratulations to our highest achievement point winners last week, Lexi in year 7, Evie, Frankie and Georgie year 8, Shelbea-Kim year 9, Annelise year 10 and Olivia year 11.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Begley
Head of School - Carisbrooke College