Back where we belong!

My newsfeed has been overrun with ‘back to school’ photos this week – so here’s ours!

After almost 6 months apart, it’s fantastic to be back in Crew together – albeit socially distanced from me, as per our bubble safety measures!

I can’t praise my Crew enough for how they’ve handled the return to school.  They all sauntered back into school like they’d never been away, keen to get right back into lessons.  It’s been an absolute joy to see them back where they belong, sat at their desks with their classmates, enjoying the challenges of this week’s immersion activities.

I always notice the physical changes after the Summer holidays, but the changes have been on another level this year.  Yes, they’ve all come back taller, but I’m even more astounded by the changes in their attitude and outlook.  All of a sudden, my Crew are very grown up!

As we look ahead to what we want to achieve in Y10,  we’ve spent some time revisiting the pledges we made at the start of Y9.  This time last year we were thinking about Passage Presentations and beginning our GCSE journey.  Many of the pledges focussed on improving HOWLs grades in certain subjects by the end of the school year… but the rest is history and we never got to see what those grades would’ve been!

However, I reckon Crew have achieved so much on a personal level during lockdown, above and beyond what we could teach them in school (and no, I’m not talking about Mackenzie’s new found block paving skills!)

So, as most of them wanted to end last year with improved grades, I’m giving them all a 4.5 for their courage, resilience and determination not to let the missed time at school hold them back from wanting to succeed.

Year 10 – we’re ready for you 🙂