December End of Term Newsletter

Dear Families,

This has been another very busy yet successful half-term! The Prefects began the second half of term by outlining their initiatives and vision for the year, focused on the theme of Giving Back. They have organised a toy drive for the Michaelmas term and will be coordinating a food drive in the Lent term and a clothing drive in the Summer term. All donations will support local charities, with the aim of establishing this as a sustainable series of initiatives each year.

The main House event has been House Drama. The standard and quality of performances continue to rise, and it is always impressive to see how innovative and creative our pupils are in scriptwriting and staging the plays. This year, Newlands managed to wrestle the trophy away from Lodge, who had held it for a number of years!

On the sports front, both our U18 boys’ and U18 girls’ teams progressed through the County rounds to the Regional Finals of the indoor hockey championships, where they acquitted themselves very well. The 1st XV rugby team has developed strongly over the term. Despite being a very young side, they have produced excellent team performances. Their commitment and team spirit have been notable, culminating in a commendable 13-13 draw against Chatham and Clarendon in the Le Crunch match.

We also broadened our festival against Chatham and Clarendon by playing La Crunchette fixtures in netball, where both the 1st VII and 2nd VII won their matches by fine margins. As part of the Le Crunch series, pupils raised money for Movember by initiating a range of charitable ventures, including a bake sale, car wash, pie-the-teacher, pool tournament, and rowing to Twickenham. These student-led activities raised over £2,000 for the charity.

A number of pupils have recently gained their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Awards, and all pupils in Year 10 will have the opportunity to complete it this year. The term concluded with a series of superb musical performances. The Christmas Concert was truly impressive, showcasing a wide array of talent, and it was wonderful to end the term with our Carol Service on Thursday.

On the academic front, 4,578 merits have been awarded to date, and pupils have been working very hard. The winners of the House Merit competitions were Courtenay, Lodge, and Clifford. It is encouraging that all our Upper Sixth UCAS forms have been submitted, and several students have already received positive responses from their universities of choice.

The Fifth Form recently participated in an excellent session on revision techniques, and we wish them and the Upper Sixth well with their revision programmes over the holiday. We also continue to strengthen our relationship with other schools in the area by hosting the East Kent Schools Together (EKST) The Big Design Challenge. Some of our pupils attended the Big Explore at Pines Calyx, as well as other super-curricular events organised by EKST.

Our pupils should be very proud of their hard work this term, and they deserve a relaxing and enjoyable holiday. I wish all members of our community a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Best wishes,

Barney Durrant MA

Head of College