Dear UCC Families

Our Pre Public Exams have continued throughout this week and Year 11 students have worked very hard, in what is an intensive period of time for them. They will have learned a great deal during this process, not just about their strengths and areas to develop across the curriculum, but about how to navigate an exam season, which requires a huge amount of organisation, planning, dedication and resilience. Thank you to all the families who have been working hard at home to support Year 11 through these PPEs. 

During the past 18 months we have tightened our behaviour system in lessons, to allow our teachers to deliver the curriculum in an environment conducive to learning and free from disruptions. In practice, this means that if a student doesn't meet our expectations in a lesson, they will receive a warning and any further disruptions following that result in the student working for the rest of the lesson in the Study Room, which is supervised by senior and pastoral leaders. This system has had a hugely positive impact on the classroom environment, which was already good, but this has resulted in an even calmer and more purposeful atmosphere across the school. We completed some analysis of the number of times students are removed from lessons to the Study Room during 22-23 and on average, during each period of the school day, 1.6 students are removed. With 910 students on roll, the average of 1.6 removals per period is very low and we are pleased that the overwhelming majority of our students are compliant with our behaviour expectations and are focussed in lessons. 

Miss Hodgson in our PE department is organising an inclusive sports event in the summer term and the planning process for this has commenced. For the students that will be involved, we would like to produce a bespoke event t-shirt, and before we start contacting suppliers, I wondered if there are any of our parents who work in, or have contacts with, the clothing/printing industry. If this is an area you could contribute towards, please get in touch with us and we can have a conversation about how you might get involved. 

On a similar theme, we are also seeking to create a partnership with any local organisations that would be interested in sponsoring our UCC Rugby teams. We have a high number of students who are incredibly passionate about rugby and during recent seasons our boys and girls team have experienced a great deal of success. However, our kits are rather dated and they are very expensive to replace, so if there are any of our parents who work within an organisation that would be prepared to kindly sponsor our new kits, please get in touch with us; we would greatly appreciate it.

Please take the time to read through the rest of the newsletter.

I hope you all have a great weekend.
Mr Solly.